The Post-American World 2.0

​The Post-American World 2.0
By Fareed Zakaria
Published in 2008 and updated in 2012
292 Pages
Thibault’s Score: 4/5


Note: I listened to the Audiobook which was read by the author Fareed Zakaria. Hearing the original author’s voice is very welcome, and the audiobook is particularly well produced.


Fareed Zakaria’s understanding of the current geopolitical trends are prescient and accurate. His understanding of the coming trends in the world run very deep.


This book is an outline of the world in which my children will live. Zakaria describes a world where America’s hegemonic unipolarity has been shattered. This isn’t an apocalyptic book which tries to fear-monger, quite to the contrary I was pleasantly surprised to find that Zakaria works to reassure his readers.


The Post-American World is a well written defense of Western values and Free Market capitalism that treats China and India as powerful actors.


Despite all of the books strengths, it occasionally falls short. For example, Zakaria predicts that Islamic terrorism will be a minor issue. This book was written before the rise of ISIS, and had Zakaria published this book only several months after he did his analysis would have been completely different.


I recommend this book to people with a deep interest in geopolitics, and after reading this book, am left with a deep respect for Zakaria’s analytic abilities.


On a last note, Obama is known to have read this book (see the picture below). Obama clearly has good tastes in literature.