World Builders: Technology and the New Geopolitics

“My book starts with an Introduction, mapping the essential structure of global politics with its two levels of competition. The four chapters that follow provide a granular description of the world system and the way its distinct elements are ultimately connected. These chapters move across as many areas of state competition as could plausibly be discussed in a coherent and intelligible whole. They will help the reader navigate the processes of technological innovation, information technology, technical standardisation, currency statecraft, chip production, economic sanctions, global shipping, intelligent warfare, drones, climate change, energy flows, the energy transition, industrial policy, artificial intelligence, cyberwar and ransomware, central bank digital currencies, economic decoupling and infrastructure development, among many other subjects. To paraphrase what Salman Rushdie says in one of his novels, ‘to understand the world game, you have to swallow the world’. (…) In reality, from the moment when the whole planet became subject to measurement and control, the struggle would take place between different blueprints. The new geopolitics has its own logic, and it is a logic of world building.”I have already reserved for this title the treatment I apply to those added to my "Best Books Read" list (currently 25). This means purchasing the printed version after, in the case, initially buying and reading the ebook over the weekend.This is a wildly ambitious undertaking—an attempt to unravel the fundamental complexity of the contemporary world we are born into, live in, and eventually leave, all while pulling it off with remarkable success. So much so that, to my surprise, I found it incredibly difficult to put down—even for meals or sleep—until the very last line, which is quite unusual for me.So, before anything else—masterpiece alert. This essay is fundamentally important and deeply illuminating. It’s clearly written, brilliantly structured, and solidly grounded—a true marvel of intellectual prowess. And thankfully, it’s not pessimistic!(N.B.: Longer review in Goodreads.)