My rating: 4 of 5 stars
There has been a plethora of books about China and it's economic and political rise in the early 21st century such as Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith in the New China by Evan Osnos and Wealth and Power: China's Long March to the Twenty-first Century by Orville Schell. However, too few of those books look at China in its regional context. That is a serious oversight considering China's Road and Belt Initiative that was announced a few years ago. In this valiant attempt to try to look at the vast Eurasian land mass and try to divine the tea leaves, Peter Frankopan, author of the acclaimed history The Silk Roads: A New History of the World, does just that.
Looking at the economic rise of China and the relative disarray in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, Frankopan makes the argument that the balance of economic and political power is shifting back from the West to the East. This is not a new argument to anyone even remotely familiar with recent international affairs, but the key insight Mr. Frankopan brings to the table is looking at the region as a whole and how China's influence runs deep for both good and ill. Mr. Frankopan even briefly expands his scope in several places to China's growing influence in Africa and Latin America & Caribbean regions. Pointing to China's extension of trade and loans to these regions, especially in it's drive to knit together a new "Silk Road", China's rise is unmistakably the biggest geopolitical question for all nations today.
Though China is the main topic of this book, it is not the only one. Mr. Frankopan gives special attention to Russia and, in particular, Iran, going so far as to name all three countries as the most important ones in the region. Examining the pitfalls and promises of each country, one is left with the conclusion that the major changes in world politics will be coming out of Eurasia and not the West in the next decades.
That said, the fact that this book is rather slim, the topic is so vast and so messy, means that this book has a bit of a messy feel at times. The first chapter reads like an IR tourist's checklist of wonders that China and the region are pledging to our achieving. The first pages are not the most nuanced appraisal of the region, but Mr. Frankopan's analysis get's more nuanced as it goes along. Furthermore, while each of the chapters suggest some kind of overarching theme in each, it does not always turn out that way. Perhaps a narrative device, like a small story that branched off into the analyses Mr. Frankopan wished to convey, would've helped to focus the attention of this book.
Still, Mr. Frankopan has done a tremendous job in trying to cover so much ground in so few pages, and he mostly succeeds. This updated edition feels especially relevant, though the COVID-19 outbreak may require some reappraisals once the crisis is over. To anyone interested in Eurasia in general, China in particular, and the West's response, I highly recommend this book.
Looking at the economic rise of China and the relative disarray in countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom, Frankopan makes the argument that the balance of economic and political power is shifting back from the West to the East. This is not a new argument to anyone even remotely familiar with recent international affairs, but the key insight Mr. Frankopan brings to the table is looking at the region as a whole and how China's influence runs deep for both good and ill. Mr. Frankopan even briefly expands his scope in several places to China's growing influence in Africa and Latin America & Caribbean regions. Pointing to China's extension of trade and loans to these regions, especially in it's drive to knit together a new "Silk Road", China's rise is unmistakably the biggest geopolitical question for all nations today.
Though China is the main topic of this book, it is not the only one. Mr. Frankopan gives special attention to Russia and, in particular, Iran, going so far as to name all three countries as the most important ones in the region. Examining the pitfalls and promises of each country, one is left with the conclusion that the major changes in world politics will be coming out of Eurasia and not the West in the next decades.
That said, the fact that this book is rather slim, the topic is so vast and so messy, means that this book has a bit of a messy feel at times. The first chapter reads like an IR tourist's checklist of wonders that China and the region are pledging to our achieving. The first pages are not the most nuanced appraisal of the region, but Mr. Frankopan's analysis get's more nuanced as it goes along. Furthermore, while each of the chapters suggest some kind of overarching theme in each, it does not always turn out that way. Perhaps a narrative device, like a small story that branched off into the analyses Mr. Frankopan wished to convey, would've helped to focus the attention of this book.
Still, Mr. Frankopan has done a tremendous job in trying to cover so much ground in so few pages, and he mostly succeeds. This updated edition feels especially relevant, though the COVID-19 outbreak may require some reappraisals once the crisis is over. To anyone interested in Eurasia in general, China in particular, and the West's response, I highly recommend this book.
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