The Future Power Lib/E: Its Changing Nature and Use in the Twenty-First Century

POWER EVOLVES In the sixteenth century, control of colonies and gold bullion gave Spain the edge; seventeenth-century Netherlands profited from trade and finance; eighteenth-century France gained from its larger population, while nineteenth-century British power rested on its primacy in the Industrial Revolution and its navy. In the era of Kennedy and Khrushchev, power resources were measured in terms of nuclear missiles, industrial capacity, and numbers of men under arms and tanks lined up ready to cross the plains of Eastern Europe. But the global information age of the twenty-first century is quickly rendering these traditional markers of power obsolete, remapping power relationships. In The Future of Power, Joseph S. Nye, Jr., a longtime analyst of power and a hands-on practitioner in government, delivers a new power narrative that considers the shifts, innovations, bold technologies, and new relationships that will define the twenty-first century. He shows how power resources are adapting to the digital age and how smart power strategies must include more than a country's military strength. Information once reserved for the government is ow available for mass consumption. The Internet has literally put power at the fingertips of nonstate agents, allowing them to launch cyberattacks on governments from their homes and creating a security threat that is felt worldwide. But the cyberage has also created a new power frontier among states, ripe with opportunity for developing countries. At the beginning of the twenty-first century, America had about a quarter of the world's product but only 5 percent of its population. It was indisputably the most powerful nation in the world, unsurpassed in military strength and ownership of world resources. Today, China, Brazil, India, and others are increasing their share of world power resources, but remain unlikely to surpass America as the most powerful nation if the United States adopts new strategies designed for a global information age. The Internet's ultimate impact on the nature of power is a concern shared by nations around the world. The Future of Power, by examining what it means to be powerful in the twenty-first century, illuminates the road ahead.

About the Author :
Joseph S. Nye is University Distinguished Service Professor at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government; he has also served as Chairman of the National Intelligence Council, Assistant Secretary of Defense, and Deputy Undersecretary of State. He is a frequent contributor to the New York Times, Washington Post, and Wall Street Journal. Nye is also the author of several books, including The Paradox of American Power: Why the World's Only Superpower Can't Go It Alone and Soft Power: The Means to Success in World Politics. Coming soon... Erik Synnestvedt has recorded nearly two hundred audiobooks for trade publishers as well as for the Library of Congress Talking Books for the Blind program. They include The Day We Found the Universe by Marcia Bartusiak, A Game as Old as Empire edited by Steven Hiatt, and Twitter Power by Joel Comm.

Review :
"A book with an essentially modest ambition--but one that contains a fundamental lesson, nonetheless...Worthy stuff. But the book comes alive when Mr. Nye uses it as the foundation to cast doubt on the idea that America is in precipitate decline." -- "Economist" "Excellent...Nye offers an illuminating distillation of the power relationships shaping a world in which the state with the best military can lose to the adversary with the better story." -- "Financial Times" "Nye is a savvy and respected analyst, and he doesn't disappoint here. He's grappling with the hardest of questions, and though The Future of Power can at times read somewhat meanderingly, it's the best kind of meandering: a learned journey through big ideas of what power means and how it is ever-evolving." -- "Los Angeles Times" "Nye is the preeminent theorist of power in world affairs today, and this book is a grand synthesis of his ideas and an essential guide to the debate over the decline of the United States and the rise of China." -- "Foreign Affairs" "Rich in clever one-liners and felicitous phrases. But it is also...compelling. Nye is a master of his field at the height of his powers...Nye's three-dimensional chess game is the...model for a world in which the state withers but refuses to go away." -- "Washington Post"