Ian Bremmer

The Power of Crisis deserves a high rating thanks to the author. Ian Bremmer, a prominent political scientist, is articulate and concise about where trends are pointing to. He does this in all his books in general and it's especially true in The Power of Crisis.

The world is shifting all around us. The COVID pandemic shook up the global economy and it's difficult to tell whether trends are going to return to the relatively peaceful times of the 2010's or if we're going to continue to shift towards another kind of global economy.… (mere)

This book was a wild ride. I normally steer clear of alarmist-sounding arguments (or book titles for that matter) but I'm glad I kept reading because the arguments within Us vs. Them are grounded in fact, well presented, and have historical precedent. I also wasn't familiar with the author, Ian Bremmer, but now I consider myself a fan.

I feel like I've been saying this for 20 years, but it feels just as relevant now that we are at a crossroads in our Age of Globalism. Will we sort through all of the competing incentives threatening to undo our global progress, or will it all be undone regardless? It's difficult to predict but expanding on what I said above life since the start of the 21st century has been a wild ride.… (mere)

The 3 global threats geopolitical consultant Bremmer addresses are (1) health and pandemics, (2) climate change, and (3) uncontrolled technology and AI. Preliminarily, he discusses (a) the wide and bitter gulf between the 2 political cultures within the US and (b) the risk of US/China relations sliding into a cold war, believing that progress on these 2 fronts is essential for the 3 threats to be effectively tackled. Under threat #3, he gives privacy issues their due and proposes creation of a World Data Organization analogous to the WTO and the IPCC. He manages to conclude with perhaps more optimism than is justified.… (mere)