The Accidental SUPERPOWER: The Next Generation of American Preeminence and the Coming Global Disorder

Peter Zeihan

Overview: Near the end of the Second World War, the United States moved to change the international system that had been the genesis of two wars in the 20th century. The US moved to end the colonial system and replace it with an open economy protected on the high seas by the US Navy.

In THE ACCIDENTAL SUPERPOWER, Peter Zeihan proposes that the hard rules of geography are eroding the American commitment to free trade. Further, the aging population across the planet will weaken markets and capital supplies, while a vibrant American economy that-alone among the developed nations-is rapidly approaching energy independence. These factors alone are doing nothing less than overturning the global system the US helped create and ushering in a new (dis)order.

For most, the new world order is a disaster-in-waiting, but not for the Americans. The shale revolution allows Americans to sidestep an increasingly dangerous energy market. Unlike the remainder of the world’s powers that are graying, the US's youth population is large enough to enable the US to escape that trend. Finally, the US's is perfectly positioned, geography, to flourish in a de-globalizing world.