From Cold War to Hot Peace (not my line). That's one way to describe this magnThis review is also available here --> www.absurdliterature.blogspot.com
From Cold War to Hot Peace (not my line). That's one way to describe this magnificent book which could be described as ''contemporary history'', should you be so inclined and full of pomp. Focusing on the major players in the world (Trump, Putin, Xi, the EU and some other less savoury figures) it describes the world of now and how that now came to be. What I perhaps liked most about this book is how even-handed the author deals with the people he writes about. Sometimes blistering where it's necessary, praising where it can, but never taking his eye off the ball. Describing how modern China evolved from its ''Century of Shame'' to the growing giant it is today, from Turkey's early attempts at secular democracy and how Erdogan is going to take it all down and how Trump seems to be like-mindedly set on doing that to the US. This leaves us with Europe, the self-styled ''Empire of Virtue'' which cashed in on the peace-dividend but might have issues living through the next decades, now that the returns of those dividends are running out. And lastly, Putin. The calculating Russian who has been carefully crafting the idea of a Russian super-power though, in reality, it is most likely going to be relegated to, at best, a second-tier in the world power rankings. China will be in the lead, and alone at that if the EU and America are not careful about how they lead their countries and perhaps more importantly, on whom they choose to lead themselves. Naturally, a book about now has a tendency to become really outdated, real fast. Read this in 2018 if you want it to have any use for you....more
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