Optimism and Pessimism in an Era of Changing Power

Fareed Zakaria's The Post-American World is a strikingly optimistic book. Zakaria enthusiastically enumerates the positive economic and political trends of the past quarter-century, predicts a hopeful future for the international system, and offers an optimistic forecast for the ability of the United States to flourish economically and politically. This chapter will examine whether this optimism is justified and will consider potential critiques of Zakaria's optimism, assessing which are persuasive.