In 2011, the UN Human Rights Council created the mandate of the Independent Expert on the Promotion of a Democratic and Equitable International Order. This book, based on the reports by Dr. Alfred de Zayas, the first mandate-holder (2012-2018), offers a brilliant and comprehensive critique of the UN system, addressing the changes that must be made in order to further the emergence of a democratic and equitable international order. De Zayas proposes concrete reforms of the UN system, notably the Security Council. He advocates recognition of peace as a human right, slashing military budgets, and establishing the right of self-determination as a conflict-prevention measure. As it concerns the global economy, he calls for reversing the adverse impacts of World Bank and International Monetary Fund policies, rendering free-trade agreements compatible with human rights, abolishing tax havens and ISDS, alleviating the foreign debt crisis, and criminalizing war-profiteers and pandemic vultures. He denounces unilateral coercive measures, economic sanctions and financial blockades, because they demonstrably have led to hundreds of thousands of deaths. Book jacket.

“Dazzling and instructive . . . [a] magisterial new book.” —Walter Isaacson, Time "An astute analysis that illuminates many of today's critical international issues." —Kirkus Reviews Henry Kissinger offers in World Order a deep meditation on the roots of international harmony and global disorder. Drawing on his experience as one of the foremost statesmen of the modern era—advising presidents, traveling the world, observing and shaping the central foreign policy events of recent decades—Kissinger now reveals his analysis of the ultimate challenge for the twenty-first century: how to build a shared international order in a world of divergent historical perspectives, violent conflict, proliferating technology, and ideological extremism. There has never been a true “world order,” Kissinger observes. For most of history, civilizations defined their own concepts of order. Each considered itself the center of the world and envisioned its distinct principles as universally relevant. China conceived of a global cultural hierarchy with the emperor at its pinnacle. In Europe, Rome imagined itself surrounded by barbarians; when Rome fragmented, European peoples refined a concept of an equilibrium of sovereign states and sought to export it across the world. Islam, in its early centuries, considered itself the world’s sole legitimate political unit, destined to expand indefinitely until the world was brought into harmony by religious principles. The United States was born of a conviction about the universal applicability of democracy—a conviction that has guided its policies ever since. Now international affairs take place on a global basis, and these historical concepts of world order are meeting. Every region participates in questions of high policy in every other, often instantaneously. Yet there is no consensus among the major actors about the rules and limits guiding this process or its ultimate destination. The result is mounting tension. Grounded in Kissinger’s deep study of history and his experience as national security advisor and secretary of state, World Order guides readers through crucial episodes in recent world history. Kissinger offers a unique glimpse into the inner deliberations of the Nixon administration’s negotiations with Hanoi over the end of the Vietnam War, as well as Ronald Reagan’s tense debates with Soviet Premier Gorbachev in Reykjavík. He offers compelling insights into the future of U.S.–China relations and the evolution of the European Union, and he examines lessons of the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. Taking readers from his analysis of nuclear negotiations with Iran through the West’s response to the Arab Spring and tensions with Russia over Ukraine, World Order anchors Kissinger’s historical analysis in the decisive events of our time. Provocative and articulate, blending historical insight with geopolitical prognostication, World Order is a unique work that could come only from a lifelong policy maker and diplomat. Kissinger is also the author of On China.

Weak or failed states - where no government is in control - are the source of many of the world's most serious problems, from poverty, AIDS and drugs to terrorism. What can be done to help? The problem of weak states and the need for state-building has existed for many years, but it has been urgent since September 11 and Afghanistan and Iraq. The formation of proper public institutions, such as an honest police force, uncorrupted courts, functioning schools and medical services and a strong civil service, is fraught with difficulties. We know how to help with resources, people and technology across borders, but state building requires methods that are not easily transported. The ability to create healthy states from nothing has suddenly risen to the top of the world agenda. State building has become a crucial matter of global security. In this hugely important book, Francis Fukuyama explains the concept of state-building and discusses the problems and causes of state weakness and its national and international effects.

In response to a growing sense of dissatisfaction with the state of the world and the state of international relations research, Professor Kim has taken an alternative approach to the study of contemporary world politics. Specifically, he has adopted and expanded the cross-cultural, interdisciplinary, and transnational approach developed by the World Order Models Project (WOMP), an enterprise committed to the realization of peace, economic equality and well-being, social justice, and ecological balance. Systemic in scope and interdisciplinary in methodology, The Quest for a Just World Order explains and projects the issues, patterns, and trends of world politics, giving special attention to the attitudinal, normative, behavioral, and institutional problems involved in the politics of system transformation. Professor Kim also attempts to remedy a number of problematic features of traditional approaches, including a value-neutral orientation; fragmentation and overspecialization; overemphasis on national actors, the superpowers, and stability; and the Hobbesian image of world politics. Part 1 presents a conceptual framework for developing a normative theory of world order. Each of the four chapters in Part 2 examines a specific global crisis in depth, working within the framework laid out in Part 1. In Part 3 a variety of desirable and feasible transition strategies are proposed, and Professor Kim assesses the prospects for achieving a just and humane world order system by the end of this century.

This text is designed to provide students with a solid theoretical and methodological base for understanding how the present international system works, how that system is likely to evolve given current world trends, and what realistically can be done to alleviate the most serious global problems. Part 1 develops a world order perspective by examin

Global governance is here--but not where most people think. This book presents the far-reaching argument that not only should we have a new world order but that we already do. Anne-Marie Slaughter asks us to completely rethink how we view the political world. It's not a collection of nation states that communicate through presidents, prime ministers, foreign ministers, and the United Nations. Nor is it a clique of NGOs. It is governance through a complex global web of "government networks." Slaughter provides the most compelling and authoritative description to date of a world in which government officials--police investigators, financial regulators, even judges and legislators--exchange information and coordinate activity across national borders to tackle crime, terrorism, and the routine daily grind of international interactions. National and international judges and regulators can also work closely together to enforce international agreements more effectively than ever before. These networks, which can range from a group of constitutional judges exchanging opinions across borders to more established organizations such as the G8 or the International Association of Insurance Supervisors, make things happen--and they frequently make good things happen. But they are underappreciated and, worse, underused to address the challenges facing the world today. The modern political world, then, consists of states whose component parts are fast becoming as important as their central leadership. Slaughter not only describes these networks but also sets forth a blueprint for how they can better the world. Despite questions of democratic accountability, this new world order is not one in which some "world government" enforces global dictates. The governments we already have at home are our best hope for tackling the problems we face abroad, in a networked world order.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER This lengthy summary begins with a Ray Dalio synopsis of Principles of Dealing with Changing World Order. A full analysis of his chapters on China follows. This book and the audiobook are meant to complement as study aids, not to replace the irreplaceable Ray Dalio’s work. “A provocative read...Few tomes coherently map such broad economic histories as well as Mr. Dalio’s. Perhaps more unusually, Mr. Dalio has managed to identify metrics from that history that can be applied to understand today.” —Andrew Ross Sorkin, The New York Times From legendary investor Ray Dalio, author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Principles, who has spent half a century studying global economies and markets, Principles for Dealing with the Changing World Order examines history’s most turbulent economic and political periods to reveal why the times ahead will likely be radically different from those we’ve experienced in our lifetimes—and to offer practical advice on how to navigate them well. Ray Dalio recognized a combination of political and economic situations that he had not seen before a few years ago. Huge debts and near-zero interest rates led to massive money printing in the world's three major reserve currencies; major political and social conflicts within countries, particularly the United States, due to the largest wealth, political, and values disparities in more than a century; and the rise of a world power to challenge the existing world order. Between 1930 and 1945, this confluence happened for the final time. Dalio was inspired by this discovery to look for the recurring patterns and cause-and-effect correlations that underpin all significant shifts in wealth and power over the previous 500 years. Dalio takes readers on a tour of the world's major empires, including the Dutch, British, and American empires, in this remarkable and timely addition to his Principles series, putting the "Big Cycle" that has driven the successes and failures of all the world's major countries throughout history into perspective. He unveils the timeless and universal forces for what is ahead. Humans are more likely to commit evil than good under legalism because they are only driven by self-interest and need rigorous regulations to restrain their urges.