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

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.

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!

Firstly, I loved the first book and think Peter Frankopan is an excellent historian and writer. However, as many others have written in their reviews, this book should have been used for its original purpose as an extra chapter in the first (and much better) book.It feels rushed, unfinished and without purpose. Unlike its predecessor, it gives only a very surface level overview of the topics covered, with incoherent flow and vague section titles blurring the whole book into one.Furthermore, and most annoyingly, is my edition (Bloomsbury 2018) was riddled with typos, grammatical errors and other editing problems. Not sure this was even given a proper proofread before being sent to print, I've seen high-school essay first drafts with fewer errors.

The present book follows the magisterial book by the same author titled 'The Silk Roads', published in 2015 which justifiably enjoyed phenomenal success. The present book describes the impressive developments in the intervening four years in Eurasia in dramatic opposition to what is happening in the West. We are witnessing a striking narrative whereby the world is spinning in two different directions: decoupling and going it alone in the West and developing ties and tying together in Eurasia.While many activities, projects and institutions, embracing different countries are taking place and participating in Eurasia during this period, I shall focus my attention to the Belt and Road initiative promoted and financed by China because it is by far the most ambitious in scale and financing.China's President Xi Jinping articulated his vision on the Belt and Road initiative in a speech at Nazarbayer University, Kazakhstan. He said that people of various countries along the ancient Silk Road have jointly written a chapter of friendships that has been passed to this very day. Study of the Silk Roads showed that people of different races, beliefs and cultural backgrounds are fully capable of sharing peace and development. It was time, he said, to forge closer communities, deepen cooperation and expand development space in the Eurasian region. To do so required taking several joint steps, such as improving policy communication, upgrading transport links, promoting unimpeded trade and enhancing monetary circulation. The time had come to re-invigorate the Silk Roads.By the middle of 2015 the China Development Bank, one of the country's key financial institutions, declared that it had reserved $890 bn to spend on some 900 projects mainly focusing on transportation, infrastructure and energy. Six months later, the Export-Import Bank of China announced that it had began financing more than 1,000 projects in forty-nine countries as part of the Belt and Road initiative.Presently, over eighty countries participate in the initiative. These include the Central Asian Republics, the countries of the South and South East Asia, those of the Middle East, Turkey and Eastern Europe - as well as states in Africa, and the Caribbean. With a combined population of 4.4 billion, those living along the new Silk Roads between China and the Eastern Mediterranean account for more than 63 percent of the world's population, with a collective total of $21 tr - or 29 per cent of total global output.The potential is made clear by a recent report by the Asian Development Bank, which estimates that infrastructure needs in developing Asia and the Pacific will exceed $22.6 trillion through 2030 or $1.5 trillion per year, if the region is to maintain growth momentum, with that figure rising to $1.7 trillion per year if climate-mitigation is included.What is happening in the West is captured by an apt comment by the President of the European Council, Donald Tusk: what worries me, he said, is the fact that the rules - based international order is being challenged not by the usual suspects but by its main architect and guarantor, the US.And where the story in Asia is about increasing connections, collaboration, and deepening cooperation, in Europe the story is about separation, the re-erection of barriers and 'taking back control'. Br exit provides a good example of this, but so do rising populist, xenophobic, extreme right, anti-EU movements in France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Hungary and elsewhere and the support by hundreds of thousands for independence in Scotland and Catalonia.I conclude the review with what epitomizes surrealist politics and economics in the West. After president Trump pulled out of the Iran nuclear deal (the JCPOA agreement) unilaterally while the EU adhered to the agreement, the American administration imposed sanctions to companies maintaining business with Iran. To counter that, on the suggestion of the President of the European Commission, Jean-Claude Junker, the EU imposed fines for companies that ceased to do business with Iran. It is hard to think of a more appropriate way to show how the West has lost its way.