Synopses & Reviews
Synopsis
In Power Shift, Richard Falk, a UN expert on international law, puts forth a challenging set of observations on the changes in global politics that have occurred since the end of the Cold War, with a close focus on the massive transformations in relations with the Middle East after the 9/11 attacks. Falk argues that American militarism during the past twenty years has significantly reframed geopolitics, and he provides a scathing critique of many common practices and policies, including the recourse to torture, preventive war, drone technology, and diplomacy by threat.
In this sophisticated interpretation of geopolitics from a progressive perspective, Falk offers a powerful critique of mainstream thinking, illustrating how the overall effects of today s policies produce extremely cruel outcomes for people living in the Global South, the Middle East, and Africa. Unifying his argument with a desire for global justice and sustainable peace, Falk provides a provocative analysis of the new world order that is currently developing.
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Synopsis
This book depicts the challenges associated with the emergence of a new global order in which patterns of conflict and the role of traditional military power are in the process of radical flux.
Our ideas about global order have yet to catch up with these new behavioral trends, including the rise of non-state transnational political actors in the context of neoliberal globalization. In this historical setting the modern territorial sovereign state is confronted by multiple challenges ranging from climate change to mass migration to transnational political extremism.
The existing global order seems currently overwhelmed by these challenges, resulting in widespread stress and chaos that is transforming global security in ways that endanger democratic governance. The future will be determined by whether the peoples of the world make their weight felt in support of sustainable global justice and overcome the impact of oppressive and exploitative patterns of corporate and state behavior. It is this problematic set of circumstances that Power Shift addresses.