The Next American Century: How the U.S. Can Thrive as Other Powers Rise

by Nina Hachigian, Mona Sutphen

A pair of National Security Council veterans describes America's excellent prospects in the face of new rising superpowers in China, India, Russia, and other friendly competitors, in an optimistic account that explains how changes in the world economy are presenting advantageous opportunities for the United States. 25,000 first printing.

Genres: Politics

368 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Nina Hachigian is a Senior Vice President at the Center for American Progress and a Visiting Scholar of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. Earlier, she was the Director of the Center for Asia-Pacific Policy and a Senior Political Scientist at RAND. From 1998 to 1999, she was on the staff of the National Security Council. She lives in Los Angeles.

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a good survey of several of the predominant issues in world affairs, (economy, security, multinational organizations), examining how each of these issues might shape the relationship between America and each of the Pivotal Powers, (China, Russia, EU, Japan, India). The book covers a little bit on the relationships between the other countries, but primarily focuses on bi-lateral relations between the US and each of the other countries. Recommendations are given for ways the US should posture itself on the world stage.

One of the main takeaways from this book, (and I'm oversimplifying for the purpose of brevity), is that America needs to be a better leader in the world, and that unilateral action is not always the answer. Paraphrased, nobody likes a critic and a ball-hog, even if he has the strongest skills on the team. A true leader empowers others, and demands accountability from them, and recognizes that sometimes you have to sacrifice short term performance in order to build a stronger long-term capability for the group.

I was left wanting in one major area. The underlying assumption in this book is that nation-states are the relevant actors, which is true in some, but not all of the cases. Security is a good example of where this is true, but economics is not. Regardless, the book just stops at the level of "The U.S. should ..." without giving consideration to the underlying drivers that shape the issues in the U.S. or amongst the pivotal powers. I would like to have seen tangible recommendations or at least considerations for influencing policy to realize the changes recommended in the book. What is my role, (or any global citizen's role for that matter), in moving the U.S. toward this direction? Perhaps that is out of the scope of this book.

Finally, I acknowledge that this book is a "survey of issues," and therein the depth of analysis on each of the issues is not extremely robust. Each of the topics could have been more fully developed. Topics for future reading lists I suppose...

[Choong Chiat · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book presents a coherently argued and meticulously researched, in light of how notes comprised about one-fifth of the book, case for how the United States should manage its relations with five major powers (or, as the authors call them, "pivotal powers") of China, Russia, India, Japan and the European Union.

While I concur with the arguments made by the authors, their basic argument that the United States should work with the major powers -- instead of working against them -- is, in my opinion, not exactly a novel one.

Also, it would seem that while the book evidently has great breadth in the scope of issues it chose to examine, depth in analysing these issues was however perhaps lacking. The authors bit off a lot but they seem to not have chewed enough on what they have bitten off.

In addition, while the last chapter of the book (i.e. the one in which the authors examined the obstacles existing within American culture that may hinder the United States' attempt to collaborate with the major powers) was very insightful, this chapter seemed somewhat out of place in being the last chapter of the book.

All in all, this is a book which I would recommend to those who are interested in either international relations or the United States' relations with the world's other major powers.

[Vicky · Rating 1 out of 5]

I am giving this book to the library. I couldn't even finish it. I heard about it on NPR. Usually NPR doesn't let me down, but this time it did.

[Koji Mukai · Rating 4 out of 5]

Today is a suitable day to finish reading this book, written by two veterans of the Clinton administration (and one is now a key player in the Obama white house).

[Kirk Bower · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fully researched, insightful - but some chapters you have to plow through.