The End of the World Is Just the Beginning

Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

by Peter Zeihan

Paperback, 400 pages

Published June 14, 2022 by Harper Business.

ISBN:: 978-0-06-326692-6

(11 reviews)

2019 was the last great year for the world economy.

For generations, everything has been getting faster, better, and cheaper. Finally, we reached the point that almost anything you could ever want could be sent to your home within days—even hours—of when you decided you wanted it.

America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going.

Globe-spanning supply chains are only possible with the protection of the U.S. Navy. The American dollar underpins internationalized energy and financial markets. Complex, innovative industries were created to satisfy American consumers. American security policy forced warring nations to lay down their arms. Billions of people have been fed and educated as the American-led trade system spread across the globe.

All of this was artificial. All this was temporary. All this is ending.

In The End of the World Is Just the Beginning, author and geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan maps …

2019 was the last great year for the world economy.

America made that happen, but now America has lost interest in keeping it going.

All of this was artificial. All this was temporary. All this is ending.

In The End of the World Is Just the Beginning, author and geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan maps out the next world: a world where countries or regions will have no choice but to make their own goods, grow their own food, secure their own energy, fight their own battles, and do it all with populations that are both shrinking and aging.

The list of countries that make it all work is smaller than you think. Which means everything about our interconnected world—from how we manufacture products, to how we grow food, to how we keep the lights on, to how we shuttle stuff about, to how we pay for it all—is about to change.

A world ending. A world beginning. Zeihan brings listeners along for an illuminating (and a bit terrifying) ride packed with foresight, wit, and his trademark irreverence.

3 editions

Plork reviewed The End of the World Is Just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan

Will it be as bad as all that?

4 stars

The world post WW2 has been the most prosperous and peaceful time in human history.

Largely because the US has been in a cold war with the USSR, rather than fighting directly with the USSR the US brought peace and economic prosperity to the world with the condition that the world sides with the US. Any country that prevented free trade from occurring was taken out by the US.

This time is coming to an end. The US no longer has a global competitor so is withdrawing back into isolation. The US also has the perfect geography - it is self sufficient in terms of food and energy and has no threats to it's borders. Without the US acting as a global policeman the world is going to revert to it's old ways of competition rather than cooperation. Global trade and technological progress is going to collapse.

There is also …

The world post WW2 has been the most prosperous and peaceful time in human history.

There is also the issue of demographic collapse. The world is getting older. Less young people mean less people are going to be born. This means the world population is shrinking. In order to have economic growth you have to have a growing population in order to consume more.

Peter frames all of this as a really bad thing. I can't help feeling that although there are definite challenges ahead it is probably the best way to save humanity. The endless ravaging of unbounded capitalism is not sustainable and if it isn't checked will end up destroying us all. So whilst we may have challenges for the next few decades, perhaps without the global policeman encouraging everyone that the only solution is more consumption we may return to an equilibrium that is ultimately more sustainable.

Definitely an interesting book and it will be interesting to keep an eye on geopolitics with this all in mind to see how it all pans out. We do live in interesting times!

Martijn Reintjes reviewed The End of the World Is Just the Beginning by Peter Zeihan

Review of 'The End of the World Is Just the Beginning' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

It seems Peter is a bit of an America fanboy and although he raises some interesting points about the future of the world, I can't seem to shake the feeling that all is seen from star spangled banner glasses.

It seems Peter lives in an all-or-nothing world where either you fail, or you win.
This is clear from his sneers to European policies and his disdain for China.
Both territories and cultures that have long been around before the Americans staked their claim, something we still have to see from the Americans.

Sure there will be some mayor shifts in the global political landscape, and yes, the America's are sitting on a wealth of natural resources and space. But that doesn't mean that that's all that's important.