The coolest Indian in the American public eye (take that “Bobby” and Sanjay) has a great cover story in Newsweek on America in the new age. (Link:http://www.newsweek.com/id/135380/)
It’s more succinct and useful than anything in Thomas Friedman’s dry, long, and not insightful book. Key points:
- the notion of the world as more dangerous is flawed. Life for humans is increasingly less “solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short”. It’s obvious if you think about it, but a good reminder.
- America is entering a new age of decreasing relative power. But as the pie expands, the individual welfare does not need to decline.
- America has unique features that will allow us to potentially overcome our biggest obstacles. Chiefly: limited aristocratic heritage and a strong history of leveraging immigrants for the welfare of society.
- Our key imperatives going forward are to return to a better immigration policy, delegate leadership to other nations, and be mindful that new regional powers are better allies than much of the “Old World.”
If you feel like you know globalization in and out, my apologies. Otherwise, get to this article soon.
Two things that stuck out to me:
1) Zakaria’s model might argue that other institutions beyond business, banking, and education may have new models going forward. What will public service look like?
2) Africa is sorely in need of its Brazil. And South Africa is a poor qualifier because of geography and its history. As Africa has approximately 10% of the world’s population in its borders, the risks of implosive crises like the Second Congo War are very high. The upside of a stable set of nations in the region is even higher.
(PS: the final pot shot about the metric system was out of line. Feet, inches, pounds, and fahrenheit are simply better.
