The New Silk Roads: The Present and Future of the World

I enjoyed reading the author's first book, the silk road, and followed up immediately with this book. Big mistake.This book reads like a political commentary catered to readers with strong negative feelings toward the current US administration. The emphasis would be justified if brexit, Trump, and other similar events in the past few years turned out to be historical pivotal events, but we do not know, and this is a question best left to future generations of historians.As a fan of his first book, I wished he did not write this book. There are plenty of books on China's ambitions, there are plenty of books arguing for and against the current US adminstration, and there are no shortage of books on the US China relationship. This book adds neither new material nor insights. Other than the catchy title, I don't recall learning anything from reading this book.

I thought Frankopan's "The Silk Roads" was outstanding, educational and a real page turner for someone like me who devours well written well documented history. "The Silk Roads" is highly recommended, the "New Silk Roads" mmm.....not so much. By the time I slogged past the middle of the book I knew it was primarily not so well concealed commentary of the type anyone can see on CNN or MSNBC every day of the week. Suffering through page 178 was bad enough but when I got to page 179 and read that the U.S. had forcibly injected children of illegal immigrants/asylum seekers with drugs , leaving them unable to walk, afraid of people and wanting to sleep all the time, I'd had enough and put it down. I stopped watching CNN, NBC, CBS, MSNBC and ABC run around with their hair on fire three years ago. I didn't pass this book on as I normally do, I threw it away.

When Frankopan's The New Silk Roads was selected by a book club to which I belong, I was very excited. Unfortunately, the book is a terrible disappointment. If you are looking for a repetitive compilation of statements by Chinese, Russian, and other leaders of their ambitions, along with a wide-ranging but poorly organized criticism of Trump Administration statements and policies, Frankopan's book is for you. But if you are looking for anything but the most superficial analysis of real global trends and developments, or any useful indication of what policies the U.S., the EU and other elements of the West should follow, there is nothing to see here.As a former diplomat, professor of international relations, and harsh critic of Trump's foreign policy (as well as the Iraq War and other U.S. misadventures), I find a few items in The New Silk Roads that might influence my views. But there is no real framework for evaluating the abundance of repetitive and random facts (or, more often, reports and statements) that fill paragraph after mind-numbing paragraph in this book. It is not a difficult read; Frankopan is a good writer. But it is a terribly light read. There is no indication at all that Frankopan did serious research for this volume. And his evaluation of sources is terribly wanting -- a serious shortcoming for a professional historian. I have not read Frankopan's earlier The Silk Roads. It must be vastly better than this, given the reviews. The New Silk Roads was certainly inspired by the earlier volume. Inspired, it seems, by the thought "I can make a lot more money without any real work."

This book concerns the modern-day intrusion of Asia (especially China) and the Middle East into dominance of the world, and the apparent loss of influence of Europe and the U.S. Russia, China and the U.S. are portrayed as modern-day empires, involved in an extremely complex game of political, economic and social influence. Various factors have significantly played into China’s hands. The extreme importance of energy and minerals have continued to keep Russia and the Middle East of central importance. It is far from clear as to what all of this means for the future of the world. Frankopan certainly projects his viewpoint, and is convincing that there is an important transition occurring in the world at this time. He presents a complex picture, and I am not sure that it gives us much insight on the big perspective over the numerous complicated details of change. Russia, China and the U.S. play the games of empires, but the world, beyond this game, has incurred changes, especially population growth (which Frankopan alludes to only very indirectly), that muddy the picture significantly. I recommend Frankopan’s book, but not strongly, for discussing a point of view that is important. It adds one piece to the puzzle of humanity today.

This is today's and tomorrow's front page news, but it isn't talked about much because other news steals the spotlight. Read it now.

I read this second Silk Roads book with the same fascination I gave the first one. wondering as I went along why the second one did not receive the raves of the first. Finally in the final chapter I realized the subject matter was current history and contained information the reader did not want to read about.

Typical western main-stream approach:1) Refuse to touch the actual reasons behind events. The book mentions that Syria and Iraq are in chaos, as if this simply came to be. Whose fault is that? Everybody knows, yet being written by a Westerner, the author refuses to even remotely say anything about it. At least in my opinion, the prospects of countries wanting to co-operate with China and not wanting to co-operate with the West, i would have naively thought that whether or not they have been invaded and destroyed by the US-of-A will most probably play a role in their decisions. None of the catastrophic consequences of Western foreign policy are seriously discussed.2) Refuse to touch the actual reasons which underline the decline of the West, which are: DE-industrialization, exploitation of the labor via "flexible" working and zero-hour contracts which have destroyed the purchasing power of millions of citizens of the western countries, at the moment when many more millions of workers see their income soar in the East,3) Witch-hunting about Russia and "election-meddling" at every opportunity, at the moment when even the very same US Congress reached the conclusion that there was no "collusion" or any involvement of Russia whatsoever (Although to be fair , the book was written in 2018 and those findings were not out yet. But then again, neither was the "meddling" ever proved, so why does the book take the liberty to present it as actual fact?).4) Reference of the-death-of-500,000-iraqi-children-was-worth-it, Madeleine Albright in expressing opinion about democracy (page 43).5) The author clearly is not comfortable with concepts like the will of the majority, since we see in inverse quotations ('the will of the people') references to the Democratic election of the British people to exit the EU. In a similar vein, not even Western-planted elections observers had anything to comment regarding the elections processes in Russia. Yet the "author" calls president Putin 'dictatorial'. Do I need to ask whether the "author" has even visited Russia, or whether has he ever talked with the Russian people itself to hear how the 'dictatorial president' has led Russia to the most prosperous era in the entire history of the country (What Putin calls: "Historical justice")?6) Labeling Venezuela a 'failed state' as if the "author" is oblivious to the war america has raged on the country, since President Chavez nationalized the country's oil resources and took them away from Private american oil corporations.This is clearly a book written by a mainstream westerner: a neo-liberal westerner of the the typical, irresponsible type.

We are living in the Asian century already, at a time when the movement of global economic, and therefore military, activity is moving from the west to the east at an astonishing speed.Peter Frankopan sees, all across Asia, a strong sense of states trying to work together and to elide their interests while putting differences behind them. Chief among these is the ‘Belt and Road Initiative’, President Xi of China‘s signature economic and foreign policy, which uses the ancient Silk Roads – and their success – as a matrix for Chinese long term planning. Since the project was announced in 2013, nearly $1 trillion has been promised for infrastructure investments, mainly in the form of loans, to around 1,000 projects.Peter Frankopan describes in some detail the Roads to the East, being Russia, Pakistan, India and the Middle East; the Road to the Heart of the world including Iran, Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan , Afghanistan, Georgia and Turkey.One reason for the optimism across the heart of Asia is the immense natural resources of the area. The Middle East, Russia and Central Asia account for 70% of proven oil resources, 65% of natural gas resources, 75% of silicon, 85% of rare earths like yttrium, dysprosium, and terbium, which are essential for super-magnets, batteries, actuators and laptops, and 80% of world heroin production.But Frankopan maintains the Initiative is not just driven by raw materials. As opposed to Trump’s inconsistent and adversarial behaviour, he maintains that President Xi’s international relations are based on win-win cooperation. He is moving to fill a vacuum left by the US and Europe’s isolationist and self- indulgent politics and to provide Chinese leadership that emphasises the benefits of mutual cooperation.The Initiative is by no means plain sailing. The rivalry with the US and the imposition of sweeping tariffs by Trump is examined, military disputes in the South China Seas, the conflict between India and Pakistan and the risks of indebtedness and non payment of loans are all discussed.Peter Frankopan contrasts the collaborative approach of the Chinese with the arbitrary, isolationist and short term nature of Trump’s foreign policies. And quotes numerous examples of the contradictions of US strategy. For instance, Saudi Arabia has become the pillar of US policy in the Middle East. One reason is its oil wealth but another is the prodigious amount of money it spends on US weapons. But Russia is active in wooing Saudi Arabia, including fighting alongside it in Syria. With the US’s Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act, US arms sales are prohibited to any nation that buys Russian weapons. This means that if Saudi Arabia, Turkey and others can be persuaded by Moscow to switch allegiances, then they fall decisively out of Washington’s orbit.Compared to the Silk Roads and Asia, Europe is not so much moving at a different speed as in a different direction. Where the story of Asia is about increasing connections, improving collaboration and deepening cooperation, in Europe the story is about separation, the re-erection of barriers and ‘taking back control.’ Brexit provides good example of this, but so do rising anti-EU movements in Italy, Germany, Poland, Hungary and elsewhere – and support by hundreds of thousands of people for independence in Scotland and Catalonia.Frankopan quotes King Zhao who ruled China nearly 2,500 years ago and declared ‘a talent for following the ways of yesterday is not sufficient to improve the world of today.’ Understanding what is driving change is the first step in being able to prepare and adapt to it. The fact is that the Silk Roads are rising. How they develop, evolve and change will shape the world of the future.Hard to argue. Certainly a sobering and topical book.

This is a fascinating review of the rise of influence of China, which does not spare a damning look at the counterproductive, ill informed and dangerous policies of the current White House. The enormous capital investments being financed around the world by China are driving trade but also creating staggering levels of national debt in countries which can ill afford the repayments. However, increasingly Russia and China are the 'go to' countries for support for former allies of the US who have been vilified by the current administration. Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, and even India are increasingly looking to China, and to Russia, as the US pursues its policies of America First - described in these pages as being 'We are America, bitch'The development of AI and robotics in Russia and China, with their enormous potential military applications, place the world at a point of great uncertainty. This all makes for sobering reading. We must hope China uses its new position of emerging world leadership wisely to preserve the peace and to live up to the fine words of its leadership.Beautifully written, erudite and engaging, this is an excellent addendum to the fine 'Silk Roads' by the same author

Peter Frankopan wrote The Silk Roads and this is like an update of where his original book finished and my what a wake up call it is with the speed of change in the rising East. The West has blown it from being completely unable to respond to the changing circumstances of the world happening under our noses - sadly our politicians have been so obsessed with maintaining the status of our much vaunted Liberal Democracy that they have contributed to us being blindsided completely by the astonishing rise of China, the Tiger Economies and India that we have no coherent response to anything that is happening at the moment! Definitely worth a read!

Peter is an excellent writer. His previous book on the Silk Roads was brilliant and this does not disappoint. In our turbulent times this book will demonstrate how wildly out of touch are so many who are supposed to be leading the world. The geopolitical shift from the West to Asia is so well illustrated, the world has changed throughout history and it will continue to do so. As technology advances across the world at an astonishing pace, there needs to be significant change in attitudes to emerging nations. This book is thought provoking and, in some ways, disturbing. I note some comments about the proofreading but these are somewhat pedantic when the real message of this book is so clear.