End of the World Is Just the Beginning Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

In this eye-opening, counterintutitive book, economics guru and geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan predicts the coming breakdown of globalization and identifies who will benefit and who will lose.

The Covid pandemic has been an eye-opening wake-up call for American business and consumers. Shutdowns worldwide disrupted production chains, leading to shortages across industries and higher costs. Now, America is withdrawing from the world. The old agreements and status quos are crumbling. The breakdown of globalization has accelerated, and it's never coming back. In The End of the World is Just the Beginning, Peter Zeihan offers provocative and surprising arguments about this new reality and how it will shake up world trade.

Isolationism and realism are becoming the dominant values of a previously interconnected world, Zeihan contends, forcing us to reevaluate the logic that has motivated international relations and global trade for more than a generation. Drawing on deep geographical knowledge and political history, he provides sharp analysis of the current crisis and forecasts what will happen in the next twenty years.

We're headed to decades of shortages, modern pirates attacking transport ships, local manufacturing increasing in fits and starts, and multiplying conflicts over scarce resources and available products. Economies that have cheap labor, PhDs, and plentiful natural resources will thrive--nations like the United States, France, and South Korea--but much of the world is headed for serious trouble.

Sharp, compelling, and informative, The End of the World is Just the Beginning will change how you think about globalization. Zeihan's insights are essential reading for political and business leaders hoping to navigate this emerging brave new world and for all of us struggling to understand--and prepare--for what comes next.

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 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 readers along for an illuminating (and a bit terrifying) ride packed with foresight, wit, and his trademark irreverence.

A New York Times Bestseller

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 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 readers along for an illuminating (and a bit terrifying) ride packed with foresight, wit, and his trademark irreverence.