Released: June 2022
Genre: Geopolitics, Society, International Affairs
Number of Pages: 475
In the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the heavy economic damage caused, many are starting to analyse future directions for humanity. Geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan argues that our age of plenty is over in The End of the World is just the Beginning.
Globalisation is the source of just about every luxury we enjoy today, not to mention the stable peace-time that has persisted since the end of the Second World War. This complicated system is starting to unravel; as America withdraws from its maintenance of the global order, multiple issues are boiling up. Collapsing populations and birth rates, fractured supply chains, difficult access to resources and heavy agricultural damage from climate change all pose serious threats. Each of them are explained across seven sections as Peter begins with a simple history lesson, the progress we made as a species and how it may all come undone.
As the book goes on, Zeihan creates a stark picture of where nations will sit over time, often ranking them in order of resilience or difficulty. A select few, most notably the North American continent and France, are well placed to weather the oncoming storms while others, especially developing countries, face a near complete collapse; this is heavily dependent on geography, military power and current relations in the global community. His claims are backed up by various up-to-date statistics and maps that lay out the unnerving situation we find ourselves in.
This set of predictions will be very hard to digest and it doesn’t offer much catharsis or positive steps to take; some may choose to put the book down and walk away. The author’s brutal realism is applied to every scenario and never relents or edges into political ideology. Depending on where you reside, The End of the World is just the Beginning could be a mildly composed breath of relief or a nail-biting prophecy, but it remains a fascinating read.
Recommended?
YES: Peter Zeihan’s latest book is one of the most sombre hardbacks I’ve ever read, but for anyone looking to understand where our modern, interconnected world is heading, it is an essential purchase (or import in my case). From start to finish it constructs an immensely detailed and well argued map of the future, describing the many damning problems that may roll into one gigantic crisis in the coming decades. We should all take note of what he has to say.
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