Seeing the Elephant

Thanks to globalization, more countries depend on each other for trade, capital, and ideas than ever before. Yet politically, these countries are drifting further apart. In Seeing the Elephant, author and emerging markets expert Peter Marber describes how increasing economic integration and the rise of new actors is drastically altering the geopolitical landscape, and offers insights on how the US can maintain a leading role in the 21st century and beyond. While America remains the single most important economy today, rising economic powerhouses - China, Russia, India, Brazil and others - bring a diverse set of interests to the table that the US cannot afford to ignore, Marber explains. Moreover, globalization has created thousands of non-state actors - corporations, banks, hedge funds, activists and even terrorists - who bring their own concerns to bear on the world system. In the era of globalization, America's success hinges on the success of its neighbors, too. Yet from its invasion of Iraq to its disregard of major treaties - some recent US choices have shown little regard for these new players. As the lines between economic, defense, environmental, immigration, and energy policy become increasingly blurred, having a holistic and coherent approach to cross-border challenges is essential. Yet the forums and institutions that once coordinated these relationships - the UN, World Bank and the G7- are losing relevance and no longer adequately represent the world's expanded power roster. To remain vital, Marber believes all our multilateral institutions will require fresh ideas and revamping. Seeing the Elephant demystifies globalization, and analyzes the megatrends and interconnections of the 21st century. With bold suggestions on how America reassert its historic leadership in the new global arena, Seeing the Elephant should be required reading for policy makers, businessmen and informed citizens alike.

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REVIEWS

"Creative and accessible . . . Peter Marber has earned his insights into globalization as a practitioner who studied emerging markets long before they became fashionable in the West. An inspiring, terrific book about the most important subject of our era."
—Steve Coll, Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of Ghost Wars and The Bin Ladens

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"On the money . . . . If you want to understand globalization's future, as well as some of the reasons we got into our current financial mess, reading Marber's Seeing the Elephant is a great place to start."
—Craig Karmin, Wall Street Journal reporter and author of Biography of the Dollar: How the Mighty Buck Conquered the World and Why It's Under Siege

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"Peter Marber is an original thinker who has managed to write a genuinely original book about globalization—a subject that has been exhausted by far too many more conventional analyses. His 'macro quantum' perspective on the world spotlights the critical, unavoidable fact of infinite connections among states and people. Those connections, and the uncertainty and unpredictability they bring, also open up a world of infinite possibility."
—Anne-Marie Slaughter, Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University

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"At a time when we are witnessing the collapse of just about everything, Seeing the Elephant should be required reading for any American looking for a way forward. Peter Marber unpacks the intricately connected, fast-evolving world we live in with crystal-clear prose, apt metaphors, and hard data.
Seeing the Elephant provides a prototype of the new flight apparatus America needs to navigate our way successfully through the buffeting winds of the twenty-first century."
—Mira Kamdar, author of Planet India: The Turbulent Rise of the Largest Democracy and the Future of Our World

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"Great timing . . . . Seeing the Elephant captures global reality as it is today and where it is heading far more deeply than any framework offered so far. This is the book government and business leaders must read. By cleverly investigating the connections between finance, the environment, security, and poverty, Marber makes all previous writing on globalization redundant."
—Parag Khanna, author of The Second World: Empires and Influence in the New Global Order