The End of the World is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

by Peter Zeihan

America’s strengths allow her debates to be petty, while those debates barely affect her strengths.

The American story is the story of the perfect Geography of Success. That geography determines not only American power, but also America’s role in the world.

Instead of forging an empire global in scope, the Americans bribed up an alliance to contain the Soviet Union.

The Americans have never had a tradition of governing excellence* because for much of their history they didn’t really need a government.

The post–Cold War era is possible only because of a lingering American commitment to a security paradigm that suspends geopolitical competition and subsidizes the global Order. With the Cold War security environment changed, it is a policy that no longer matches needs. What we all think of as normal is actually the most distorted moment in human history. That makes it incredibly fragile.

That is what “decivilization” means: a cascade of reinforcing breakdowns that do not simply damage, but destroy, the bedrock of what makes the modern world function.

A precious few countries have managed a high degree of development while simultaneously avoiding a collapse in birth rates. It is . . . a painfully short list: the United States, France, Argentina, Sweden, and New Zealand.

Socialism cannot generate capitalist levels of growth even when the pie is expanding, much less when it is shrinking.