The World: A Brief Introduction by Richard Haass

I’d been wanting to read Richard Haass’ 2017 book A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order but after seeing reviews of his newest book The World: A Brief Introduction in newspapers of record like  The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal and hearing him interviewed on NPR and Ian Bremmer’s GZERO World podcast I figured I’d skip The World in Disarray and go straight to The World. Figuring a book by the longtime President of the Council on Foreign Relations and key player in both Bush administrations would make for insightful reading I borrowed a Kindle edition through my public library’s Overdrive portal. Touted as a “primer” on our increasingly complicated and interconnected world Haass’ book reads with ease.

Haass starts off by asserting America no longer constructively engages with the rest of the world. As a nation we’ve ceased taking an active role in global affairs and on those few occasions we’ve taken the initiative we’ve made things worse by making horrible decisions. Unfortunately, this double whammy of ineptitude is playing out in a world that grows more unstable and unpredictable by the day. The reason, Haass claims, is because most Americans are ignorant of the wider world. In our push to promote the STEM curriculum young Americans are graduating for colleges and universities with less exposure to global history, comparative politics and international relations. Older Americans, even if they’d taken such classes in college haven’t kept up with the monumental changes that have shaped and continue to shape our world since the Fall of Communism.  What Americans need is an accessible refresher course promoting “global literacy” which hopefully will allow us to function at some basic level in international affairs.

The World begins with a breezy, yet surprisingly comprehensive history of the world beginning with the 30 Years War, arguably considered the birth of the modern age. Once Haass has put everything in deeper historical context he serves up an equally breezy and comprehensive International Relations 101 introduction covering everything from NATO, the United Nations, global trade, diplomatic relations and everything in between. He concludes The World with a look where the planet might be heading, with special attention paid to such rising challenges as human-induced climate change, dwindling resources, authoritarian populism (frequently at the expense of democratic rule) and mass migration. Lastly, he includes a list of books, publications and the like recommended to be helpful for keeping abreast of international developments.

Even though much of The World was a review for me I highlighted the heck out of it, proving Haass did a fine job covering such an expansive topic and explaining things well. If you wanna understand today’s world, this book (in addition to others like Ian Bremmer’s Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism ) is an ideal place to start.