Interesting stats about economic progress in the world & the US and relative economic improvements over time. Definite liberal viewpoint -- we're all better with cooperation. ( )

Interesantes lecciones y reflexiones ( )

Fareed Zakaria writes well. He is often persuasive and sometimes very informative. He is not always right.

He rushed this book to publication and makes many good points, some fair criticisms, a number of excellent observations, some wise judgements and some conclusions that he may come to regard as embarrassing in the near future.

He makes the statement that "The United States and Great Britain are the first major countries to open up and begin entering a post-pandemic world." This is respectfully, palpable nonsense. He is unapologetically partisan in his views and I share a lot of them but his lauding of the current administration's handling of the pandemic is rose-tinted at best.

Of his ten lessons some of them are obvious. Globalisation, how do we approach future events, how to rebuild, listening to the science and the inevitable bipolarity of superpower-dom.

He equates an opposition to globalisation to selfishness but I think that that is flawed and simplistic. I agree with him that globalisation cannot be reversed but it can be sent sideways. We have allowed globalisation to be moved to manufacturing monopoly in favour of the distinctly repressive Chinese administration and that is the most urgent thing for the West to address TOGETHER. He correctly, if grudgingly credits Trump with looking to challenge this and just as correctly, but less grudgingly, criticises him for trying to address it alone and with an excess of hubris.

I am a glass-half-full man and I don't hold with the doom-sayers who think Western renewal is beyond us all but a concerted effort is needed to work together on a multi-national level to ensure that the world's supply chains are not ever as dependent on a single state again. Localised Globalisation is the oxymoron that must prevail if we are to thrive more than survive and it makes ecological sense too.

The main lesson that I have taken from this pandemic is that governments and its servants are not to be trusted - whether it is with our freedoms and certainly not with the truth. Politicians and scientists have never been trusted by the populace less than today and rightly so. That trust will take a generation perhaps to recover.

He also makes no mention of the rampant inflation that the world will need to face down as it looks at ways to rebuild and, of course, which he avoids as it may appear critical to his constituency. Personally I don't blame Johnson, Biden or other leaders entirely for the inflation that the pandemic has brought upon us - it is a result of 35 years of failed policies that imbalanced the world economy and an inevitable outcome of such a pandemic when economies are locked down in an unprecedented manner.

Given the present John Hopkins and other studies on the failures of lockdowns, Zakaria, makes a very prescient point:

Was it worth it? These are difficult decisions, but one cannot but think that in many developing countries, not enough thought was given to the calamities that would follow a lockdown.

Is this limited to the developing world? (whatever that is these days - and I believe that the populations of many countries such as the one I reside in have more faith in their government's decision making and are more apt to follow their directives without civil unrest). Statistics can be used to tell us anything if we are biased enough to interpret them in keeping with our prejudices and not every country reported hospitalisations and deaths with the same parameters as others, but studies do need to be made objectively as to whether the approach of Florida was more effective than that of, say New York or Illinois, without politics intruding into the discussion too profusely. I don't know the answer to the question but it is one we need to ask ourselves.

Finally he does not give any thought in a meaningful way of the real origins of the virus, accepting the rather increasingly suspicious dismissal that it evolved naturally in Wuhan. One lesson that should be learned from the pandemic is that the scientists should be watched and we shouldn't be throwing money at experimenting with our existence is such a cavalier manner. ( )

So, what's next? The pandemic will accelerate all the problems facing humanity: climate change, digital revolution, bipolar power struggle, retreat from liberal democracy, etc, etc Ths is a very thoughtful and useful overview with some encouragement for what's coming. ( )

A very well written and timely book on the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the world.

Fareed Zakaria, one of my favorite political scientists and commentators (if you have a chance, watch his CNN show, subscribe to his podcast, or read his weekly column in the Washington Post) offers his take on the political, social, technological and economic consequences that may take years to unfold as the we enter a post-pandemic world.

He remains a strong advocate for multilateralism and a liberal international order, and rightfully points out that “No single country can organize the entire world anymore. None wants to. That leaves only the possibilities of chaos, Cold War or cooperation.”

As we enter a post-pandemic world that looks certainly to be increasing bipolar, how China and the US choose to cooperate on multiple fronts will have perhaps the greatest impact on the future of the world for years to come. But this bipolarity remains embedded in an “enduring, powerful, multilateral world.” He argues that while bipolarity is inevitable, but a cold war is a choice.

As Zakaria notes in the final chapter, “this ugly pandemic has created the possibility for change and reform. It has opened up a path to a new world. It is ours to take that opportunity or squander it. Nothing is written. “

5/5 stars ( )