The World: A Brief Introduction

by Richard N. Haass

An invaluable primer from Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations, that will help anyone, expert and non-expert alike, navigate a time in which many of our biggest challenges come from the world beyond our borders.

Like it or not, we live in a global era, in which what happens thousands of miles away has the ability to affect our lives. This time, it is a Coronavirus known as Covid-19, which originated in a Chinese city many had never heard of but has spread to the corners of the earth. Next time it could well be another infectious disease from somewhere else. Twenty years ago it was a group of terrorists trained in Afghanistan and armed with box-cutters who commandeered four airplanes and flew them into buildings (and in one case a field) and claimed nearly three thousand lives. Next time it could be terrorists who use a truck bomb or gain access to a weapon of mass destruction. In 2016 hackers in a nondescript office building in Russia traveled virtually in cyberspace to manipulate America's elections. Now they have burrowed into our political life. In recent years, severe hurricanes and large fires linked to climate change have ravaged parts of the earth; in the future we can anticipate even more serious natural disasters. In 2008, it was a global financial crisis caused by mortgage-backed securities in America, but one day it could well be a financial contagion originating in Europe, Asia, or Africa. This is the new normal of the 21st century.

The World is designed to provide readers of any age and experience with the essential background and building blocks they need to make sense of this complicated and interconnected world. It will empower them to manage the flood of daily news. Readers will become more informed, discerning citizens, better able to arrive at sound, independent judgments. While it is impossible to predict what the next crisis will be or where it will originate, those who read The World will have what they need to understand its basics and the principal choices for how to respond.

In short, this book will make readers more globally literate and put them in a position to make sense of this era. Global literacy--knowing how the world works--is a must, as what goes on outside a country matters enormously to what happens inside. Although the United States is bordered by two oceans, those oceans are not moats. And the so-called Vegas rule--what happens there stays there--does not apply in today's world to anyone anywhere. U.S. foreign policy is uniquely American, but the world Americans seek to shape is not. Globalization can be both good and bad, but it is not something that individuals or countries can opt out of. Even if we want to ignore the world, it will not ignore us. The choice we face is how to respond.

We are connected to this world in all sorts of ways. We need to better understand it, both its promise and its threats, in order to make informed choices, be it as students, citizens, voters, parents, employees, or investors. To help readers do just that, The World focuses on essential history, what makes each region of the world tick, the many challenges globalization presents, and the most influential countries, events, and ideas. Explaining complex ideas with wisdom and clarity, Richard Haass's The World is an evergreen book that will remain relevant and useful as history continues to unfold.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Politics, Economics, International Relations, World History, Political Science

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 12, 2020

About the author

Dr. Richard Nathan Haass is in his fourteenth year as president of the Council on Foreign Relations, an independent, nonpartisan membership organization, think tank, publisher and educational institution dedicated to being a resource to help people better understand the world and the foreign policy choices facing the United States and other countries.

In 2013, he served as the chair of the multiparty negotiations in Northern Ireland that provided the foundation for the 2014 Stormont House Agreement. For his efforts to promote peace and conflict resolution, he received the 2013 Tipperary International Peace Award.

From January 2001 to June 2003, Dr. Haass was director of policy planning for the Department of State, where he was a principal advisor to Secretary of State Colin Powell. Confirmed by the U.S. Senate to hold the rank of ambassador, Dr. Haass also served as U.S. coordinator for policy toward the future of Afghanistan and U.S. envoy to the Northern Ireland peace process. In recognition of his service, he received the State Department’s Distinguished Honor Award.

Dr. Haass has extensive additional government experience. From 1989 to 1993, he was special assistant to President George H.W. Bush and senior director for Near East and South Asian affairs on the staff of the National Security Council. In 1991, Dr. Haass was awarded the Presidential Citizens Medal for his contributions to the development and articulation of U.S. policy during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm. Previously, he served in the Departments of State (1981–1985) and Defense (1979–1980), and was a legislative aide in the U.S. Senate.

Dr. Haass also was vice president and director of foreign policy studies at the Brookings Institution, the Sol M. Linowitz visiting professor of international studies at Hamilton College, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, a lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, and a research associate at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. A Rhodes scholar, Dr. Haass holds a bachelor’s degree from Oberlin College and master’s and doctorate degrees from Oxford University. He has also received numerous honorary degrees.

Dr. Haass is the author or editor of thirteen books on American foreign policy and one book on management. His latest book is A World in Disarray: American Foreign Policy and the Crisis of the Old Order, published in 2017 by Penguin Press.

Reviews

[Ryan Boissonneault · Rating 4 out of 5]

Here’s a disturbing thought: we live in a democracy in which it is not only possible, but highly likely, that one can complete their formal education without taking a single course in world history, politics, government, or economics. That’s true for the 70 percent of Americans whose formal education ends with high school as well as for the 30 percent who earn a college degree but focus almost exclusively on the technical courses associated with their major.

As Richard Haass writes:

“A recent survey of over eleven hundred American colleges and universities found that only 17 percent require students to take courses in U.S. government or history, while only 3 percent require them to take coursework in economics.”

Unless people are taking it upon themselves to learn these subjects, much of our voting public has zero experience or formal education in the subjects directly related to the issues they are voting on. You simply couldn’t ask for a population more primed for manipulation and propaganda than this.

This is the background and impetus for Richard Haass’s latest book, which seeks to correct this deficiency in knowledge by providing a crash course on the modern history of the world and the major global issues that dominate the news. While Haass can’t make you an expert in international relations in a single 300-page book, he can at least make you more conversant regarding world issues and events, less susceptible to propaganda, and better positioned to pursue further study.

The book is divided into four parts, which results in some repetition but also drives home some key points. The first part is a brief chronological history of the world from the Thirty Years’ War and Treaty of Westphalia through World War I, World War II, the Cold War, and up to the present day.

The second section covers each region of the world, including the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Middle East, South Asia, and East Asia and the Pacific. The third section covers global issues such as climate change, trade, immigration, and nuclear proliferation, and the fourth section describes the elements of global order and disorder and the balance of power.

As Haass notes, each chapter of the book deserves its own book—of which several have been written—but what Haass is attempting to provide is exactly what is missing: a higher-level overview of world history and international relations that can serve as a foundation for a deeper investigation of specific issues. This is beneficial, particularly for someone entirely new to the subject, as they may have difficulty knowing where to start without the benefit of seeing the bigger picture. And if one’s education in international relations were to consist solely from the reading of this book, that person would still be head-and-shoulders above most US citizens in their knowledge of the world.

The coverage, as far as I can tell, strives for objectivity without hiding the fact that the current US administration—by any reasonable understanding of history and politics—is placing the current world order at significant risk. The very things (in addition to nuclear deterrence) that have resulted in the long-term peace between nations since World War II, such as strong alliances, an increasing number of democracies, the delegitimization of war, and the creation of international organizations and law—all overseen by the US taking a leading role in the world—are slowly being replaced by nationalism, isolationism, xenophobia, and authoritarianism that makes global war and instability far more likely.

This is not to say that the US has not made significant mistakes in terms of foreign relations; it only suggests that the US, in isolating itself from the world order it helped to create, is only going to increase the level of instability and conflict in the world. World order does not happen on its own, and, without direction, there is a natural tendency to disorder—or to the emergence of another superpower willing to adopt the role vacated by the US (China).

While Haass’s coverage is extensive, I was surprised that inequality, while mentioned several times throughout the book, did not receive its own dedicated chapter, considering the significance of the issue. Growing levels of economic inequality have led to growing levels of political inequality, which has essentially led to the oligarchic capture of the US government. This is a major storyline worthy of further coverage, but the interested reader will have to look elsewhere. Personally, I would recommend checking out Robert Reich’s The System, Who Rigged It, How We Fix It.

Also absent from the book is any meaningful coverage of the intellectual movements underlying major political changes, such as the impact of the Scientific Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment on political thinking, particularly its influence on the US founders. The foundational political philosophy of the left and right—in large part established in the aftermath of the French Revolution by Thomas Paine (advocate of Enlightenment-era liberal ideas) and Edmund Burke (the philosophical founder of modern conservatism)—is not addressed.

But this is probably asking too much; The World admirably fulfills its basic purpose as a general introduction or refresher course on the state of the world, and represents a timely and much needed antidote to ignorance and the overconfidence that ignorance breeds. As Charles Darwin said, “Ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge.”

And what better description is there of the US voting population at large? Not only are we highly polarized; we’re also more sure of ourselves than ever—despite the fact that the data tells us almost everyone has no experience or education regarding the topics they are so overconfident about. We could all do ourselves a favor by reading this book and rethinking our positions from a more informed perspective.

[Radiantflux · Rating 2 out of 5]

47th book for 2020.

This was an OK, but really very superficial primer for World politics and economic institutions.

2-stars.

[Ernesto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I have enjoyed this book.
It gives you a nice overview of the world beginning with the history of each region and the current situation, both political and geopolitical. It is a book geared to introductory classes on international relations or to people with interest in international relations.

The book is of course written from a US perspective, but it was much objective than I expected. The chapter and references to Latin America were clear and balanced. Since the whole idea is to be able to see international relations without prejudice, I think it did a good job and it gave me a new way to see my region. It struck me when Haass said that Latinamerica was a stable region between countries but unstable within.

Reccomended reading to anyone that has interest in global issues.

(I read this as a DRC, provided by the publisher)

[Book Shark · Rating 4 out of 5]

The World: A Brief Introduction by Richard Haass

“The World” is an excellent introduction to becoming more globally literate. Accomplished author, president of the Council on Foreign Relations who served under President George H.W. Bush, Dr. Richard Haass provides readers with a useful introductory tool for global citizens. This useful 400-page book includes twenty-six chapters broken out into the following four parts: I. The Essential History, II. Regions of the World, III. The Global Era, and Iv. Order and Disorder.

Positives:
1. Professionally written, accessible and well-researched book.
2. Haass makes clear what this book is all about. “My aim in this book is to provide the basics of what you need to know about the world, to make you more globally literate.” “Whatever route you decide to take, my goal is that you finish the book with a better grasp of how the world we live in came to be, how it works, and why it matters.”
3. Great command of subject material. The book is divided in logical categories and chapters and makes for easy future reference.
4. The beginning of each part begins with an excellent big picture concept. “The emergence of a world composed of independent countries that respected one another’s independence turned out to be a major innovation, one that introduced a greater degree of stability and peace but also created a capacity to make war on a level never before seen.”
5. Captures key historical events throughout the book. “What brought the Americans into the war in April 1917 was the German decision to engage in unrestricted submarine warfare, in which Germany used submarines to target ships carrying American supplies to stop them from reaching Britain and France. Americans who were on board these ships lost their lives, and the public outcry in the United States was considerable. It is possible that the United States also entered the war in part owing to the publication in early 1917 of a secret diplomatic message (the so-called Zimmermann Telegram) in which Germany promised Mexico the territory of Texas and several other states in return for its entering an alliance with Germany should the United States enter the war on the other side.”
6. The concept of appeasement and its ramifications. “Appeasement reached its height (or, some might say, depth) in Europe in the late 1930s. Hitler sought to gain living space (lebensraum) for “Aryan” Germans of European or Indo-European descent who would assert their “mastery” over “inferior” races. Breaking out of constraints imposed by the Versailles Treaty, Germany withdrew from the League of Nations in 1933, took back the Saarland in 1935, marched into the demilitarized Rhineland in 1936 (the same year it entered into alliances with Japan and Italy), and annexed Austria in early 1938.”
7. The Cold War examined. “The net result was that the Soviet Union and the United States, despite being in a cold war, evolved into a state of “peaceful coexistence.” Two very different political and economic systems with divergent worldviews and aims could nonetheless avoid outright conflict. Over time the two superpowers took steps to increase the odds their competition would remain peaceful. This became known as “détente,” from the French term referring to a relaxation of tension in a bow.”
8. 9/11, enough said. “A decade earlier, on September 11, 2001 (often referred to as 9/11), nineteen individuals from four Arab countries armed only with box cutters hijacked four civilian airliners in the United States. All nineteen men were members of al-Qaeda, a terrorist network based in Afghanistan that had its origins in the struggle against the Soviet occupation there. Two planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and a third into the Pentagon, and a fourth crashed in a field in Pennsylvania when passengers fought back against the hijackers. Three thousand people, mostly Americans but also others from nearly one hundred countries, were killed.”
9. Post War II. “Knitting together a Europe at peace with itself was one of the post–World War II era’s signature successes.”
10. Examines political systems around the globe. “The political systems are diverse: Japan, the Republic of Korea (South Korea), Taiwan, Australia, and New Zealand are all robust democracies, while China is decidedly authoritarian and North Korea (more formally the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea) is governed by arguably the most closed, repressive regime in the world. There are also a handful of countries in between: the Philippines is a democracy but is backsliding into authoritarianism, Thailand was once a democracy but is now governed by its military, and Myanmar (Burma) recently made progress toward democracy but seems to have stalled.”
11. Examines the Asian economic miracle. “There are many reasons for this economic success, and there are of course differences that account for what happened in each country. That said, what tended to be common was significant political stability, a culture of hard work, and investment in education. This was complemented by an external order that promoted free trade and for the last half a century mostly avoided conflict.”
12. Historical events of importance. “The 1967 war between Israel and its Arab neighbors (triggered by Egypt’s blockading of the Straits of Tiran used by Israeli vessels going to and from the Red Sea but begun by Israeli air strikes on Egyptian military airfields) was one such conflict. After six days of fighting, Israel seized the Sinai Peninsula and the Gaza Strip (both controlled by Egypt), the Golan Heights (controlled by Syria), and the West Bank and East Jerusalem (then under Jordanian authority). More than any other conflict with the possible exception of the 1948 war between the Arab countries and Israel that followed Israel’s creation, the 1967 war defined the parameters of Middle Eastern diplomacy for the next half a century, with the focus of the dispute shifting away from Israel’s existence to its territorial reach.”
13. The Middle East. “Iran’s political stability and orientation proved to be temporary, however, and in 1979 a revolution overthrew the Shah. Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, a senior religious figure, led this revolution and instituted a unique theocratic system that fused religious and political authority and insisted on building a society that conformed to a strict interpretation of the Koran.”
14. Africa. “Africa is difficult to characterize because it is a continent of contradictions, of successes and failures, of economic progress and extreme poverty, of emerging democracies and old-fashioned tyrannies, of countries that are stable and others racked by conflict. Its sheer size makes it even more challenging to encapsulate. It is made up of forty-nine countries occupying territory larger than the combined area of the United States, Western Europe, and India.” “The bottom line is that the promise of postapartheid South Africa has not been realized.”
15. Examines contemporary issues. “These pressures cannot be dealt with effectively at the U.S. border; instead, what is needed is a policy that “goes to the source” and creates local conditions in which people are less motivated to leave for reasons of physical and economic security.”
16. Examines global issues. “Globalization is about the flows, often vast in scale and fast in speed, of just about anything you can think of, from people and emails to viruses and carbon dioxide, across the world and across borders.”
17. Terrorism. “To qualify as terrorism, an action must involve violence or the threat of violence in some form, be intentional, be taken in pursuit of a political objective, be carried out by a non-state actor, and target civilians.”
18. Climate change. “It is a question of when—not if—large and growing areas of countries become uninhabitable owing to prolonged freshwater shortages, extreme heat, widespread flooding, and frequent, costly storms.” “But there is a near consensus in the scientific community that climate change is real and that human activity is its principal cause.”
19. Health. “These factors—a lack of consensus on priorities and policies, the absence of an organized governance framework, a shortfall in resources, the continuing threat of infectious diseases, and the emergence of an epidemic in NCDs—add up to two realities: health around the globe has improved dramatically, yet the future of global health remains uncertain and the health of any society remains vulnerable due to its interconnectedness to the health of others.”
20. Human development. “The proportion of people living in extreme poverty (defined as those living on less than $1.90 per day) is down from 40–50 percent of the world’s population fifty years ago and more than one-third of the population as recently as 1990 to under 10 percent today.”
21. Examines the world order. “At its core, world order is a description and a measure of the world’s condition at a particular moment or over a specified period of time.” “The bedrock of world order, since the Treaty of Westphalia that ended the Thirty Years’ War in Europe in the mid-seventeenth century, has been respect for sovereignty and the idea that borders ought not to be changed forcibly.”

Negatives:
1. Notes are not linked from within the narrative thus not taking advantage of one of the great Kindle features.
2. Lacks supplementary material.
3. As you would expect, an ambitious book such as this lacks depth.
4. Conservative bias but he’s fair and does state when he differs from the consensus.

In summary, this is a very useful introduction to global literacy. Haass does a wonderful job of highlighting key historical events and as you would expect a good professor to, he relays it in a direct an accessible manner. It’s a great appetizer of sorts, it’s a book that does more to whet your appetite than to deliver in depth substance of a topic. Notes are not linked and it’s very basic but if your knowledge is lacking on global issues this is a good reference book. I recommend it.

Further recommendations: “A World in Disarray” by the same author, “The Ages of Globalization” by Jeffrey D. Sachs, “A People’s History of the World” by Chris Harman, “World Politics” by Jeffrey A. Frieden, “World Order” by Henry Kissinger, and “Arguing with Zombies” by Paul Krugman.

[Luke · Rating 2 out of 5]

Possibly helpful if you've never read a newspaper.

[Denise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good overview over the very basics of history, geopolitics, world trade, etc. that apparently entirely too many people are painfully oblivious about. Did it teach me anything I didn't know? No, because I'm a fairly well-educated and generally well-informed person who pays some attention to what's going on in the world. I could think of a lot of people who clearly need a reminder of these things though, and an unsettlingly large amount of them just so happen to occupy positions of power...

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

The World: A Brief Introduction, by Richard N. Haass, is a book that examines an overview of global history, politics, and geography all toward offering an introductory look at geopolitics. Haass is a former advisor to President George W. Bush in the United States and is the current president of the Council of Foreign Relations. He examines this global geopolitics from an American perspective, and in the era of Trump, looking at geopolitical competition between the U.S. and China/Russia, as well as the declining role of the United States in global affairs. The book is broken up into sections, first giving a basic history of international relations since the Treaty of Westphalia and then delving into the world's regions and their current economic, political and geographic challenges and opportunities. Finally, Haass ends on an examination of a number of current geopolitical challenges; the environment, terrorism, cybersecurity, international organizations, global trade, and the like are all examined in swift detail.

This book is a solid attempt to increase Americans' knowledge of geopolitics, something Haass worries about, especially in light of the current American retraction from global politics. Although not as pressing or blatant as Haass may have been worrying about, the U.S. is certainly moving into a different era of international relations, as it pulls out of Iraq and Afghanistan, and due to the Trump-era retraction or threat of retraction from global institutions like the Paris Accord, the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the WHO, NATO and so forth. Haass wrote the book in response to a software engineering graduate in the U.S., who knew little of global affairs, an issue the author sees as pressing in the American realm. As a reader of politics and global affairs, I found the book to be very basic, but covering an interesting and wide variety of topics with an up-to-date lens (although pre-COVID-19, which has certainly changed the game in a big and unknowable way). This was certainly an interesting book, especially for a good introductory text on geopolitics from an American's perspective.

[Alex Orr · Rating 1 out of 5]

Maybe 1 star is too harsh, so hear me out. I heard Haas talking about this on a podcast and he mentioned the idea came about because he encountered a recent college grad who, despite being highly educated in computer engineering, was profoundly clueless about the world and history. So he set out to write a primer to help people like that develop a solid grounding in world affairs. I guess I didn't take that quite literally enough and was thinking this might be more in line with something like Yaval Noah Harrari's books, in which the author is writing incisively about a whole host of subjects, in this case, about globaly history and contemporary politics. Nope, it's not that. When Haas said he wanted to write a textbook that could be used by young people just trying to understand the world, he wasn't lying. True to his word, Haas's book is basically a textbook, perhaps for high school freshmen or 8th graders. It is VERY basic and drier than dirt, with prose that is at the level of a typical Wikipedia entry...or a high school textbook. If you know things such as that we invaded Iraq after 9/11, that the break-up of the USSR resulted in a number of newly independent countries, that India and Pakistan are hostile to each other, that a thing called "The Arab Spring" happened, and that climate change threatens our planet, I can safely say there is little-to-nothing you will pick up from this book. If, however, you kind've heard about the Iraq War(s) but don't know who started them or where Iraq is located, you were unaware of WW1 and WW2, you were unfamiliar that a host of European countries colonized much of the world for several centuries, or that you'd heard of the USSR but couldn't say what or where it was...then this book is for you. As someone els epointed out, if you've remotely followed world events and are over 35, this book will be the equivalent of having someone teach you how to do basic addition and subtraction.

[Colleen Browne · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book provides a good summary of current issues and is worthwhile from that point of view. However, when he talks about specific issues, such as terrorism, he leaves out domestic terrorism which has been a huge issue. In some ways, it reads almost Clintonian. I have written numberous comments in the margins of many pages, detailing things he has missed or soft soaped.

[Jessica Lebeau · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd recommend this to anyone who wants an overview of international politics. I'm not 'into' politics nor did I have much exposure to it in school however, I found this approachable and a good base for further reading.

[Barry · Rating 4 out of 5]

We Americans have long been notorious for not knowing, or even caring, much about the world beyond our borders. This primer on foreign affairs, written by the president of the Council on Foreign Relations, attempts to remedy at least the first of these deficiencies, since, “in a global world, what happens in one country has the potential to affect us all.”

Learning about international affairs may seem at once boring and overwhelming, but the world is a complicated place, and knowing something about it can be useful. Reasonably well-informed folks of my generation will already know most of the history that is reviewed, but Haass highlights a number of important developments in foreign policy and lessons that should be learned.

Haass provides an overview of world history since the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648, and gives a thumbnail sketch of the current economic and political conditions of each region of the globe. He then discusses how numerous specific factors affect foreign affairs: globalization, migration, terrorism, climate change, monetary policy, and others. I’m sure I’m in no position to critique any of his analyses here, but I will say that this book, perhaps surprisingly, is about as nonpartisan as a book about foreign policy could be.

I know of at least one college at a major university that is currently requiring all its seniors to read this book. If this were to become a trend we would surely have a more enlightened citizenry.

From the conclusion:

“History also teaches that order is not the natural state of international affairs and does not just emerge or continue automatically; to the contrary, it requires commitment and concerted effort by governments and others who are willing and able to put aside their differences in an effort to sustain it. The question is whether the governments and those who choose them in this era are prepared to make such a commitment. The answer to this question will tell us whether the past 75 years since World War II have been an aberration, and the world will come to resemble more what existed in the century before, or whether the liberal order and its many benefits will endure well to the the twenty-first century.”

[Chad Manske · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perhaps the best primer on international/ foreign relations I’ve ever read—and I’ve read many. Haass, the President of the Council on Foreign Relations for the past 17 years (and where I served as a military fellow 8-9 years ago) writes a readable, economically-descriptive, apolitical ‘textbook’ ranging the world and international relations (IR) disciplines. Four major sections divide the areas discussing the major continents, world order/disorder, topical social issues and more. For those who want a basic grasp of everything IR under the sun to then understand the complexity of such issues should start with this volume. The footnote dessert describing how to consume news and what constitute good sources is exceptional as it conveys to readers where to go for good, independent non-partisan news—whether it be daily or weekly newspapers, the internet, or on TV.

[John Larrabee · Rating 2 out of 5]

Good 30,000 foot summary of how and why the geopolitical landscape has changed over the past 300 years. This might be a good text book for middle school or high school students studying international relations, but it's quite boring for someone already familiar with major historical events.

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lmaooooo. Read for school. I think there is a lot of valuable information but anybody with access to the CIA world factbook and the ability to critically think could have written it.

[Mike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Terrific primer on world affairs. Every high school or college student in America should read this book. If you have a young person in your life between the ages of say, 17-24, I would consider giving them this book as a gift.

America is desperately in need of a better educated polity and young readers especially need a book like this that lays out how the world works and why.

Richard Haas has given the world a great gift with this book. Highly recommended.

[สฤณี อาชวานันทกุล · Rating 2 out of 5]

(ฟังหนังสือเสียงภาษาอังกฤษ)

ผู้เขียนบอกว่าเขาเขียนหนังสือเล่มนี้เพราะเจอบัณฑิตปริญญาตรีที่มีความรู้น้อยมากเกี่ยวกับความเป็นไปในโลก เนื้อหาจึงค่อนข้างเป็นระดับพื้นฐานตามชื่อหนังสือ ว่าด้วยประวัติศาสตร์และภูมิรัฐศาสตร์โลก เขียนอย่างค่อนข้างเป็นภววิสัยแต่สำนวนค่อนข้าง “แห้ง” เหมือนอ่านวิกิพีเดีย 55

เหมาะเป็นหนังสือเรียนระดับ ม.ปลาย หรือหนังสือประกอบวิขาความสัมพันธ์ระหว่างประเทศ แต่ใครที่ติดตามข่าวต่างประเทศ รู้เรื่องเหตุการณ์สำคัญๆ ในประวัติศาสตร์โลกอยู่แล้วก็ไม่มีความจำเป็นต้องอ่าน

[Donna Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5, rounded up because the fault was my own. The description I read lead me to believe this was a history book…not sure what I read or where! Anyhow, I kept waiting for more history, but all I got was a somewhat arrogant primer on how to properly run a government.
On a positive note, this book lays out and explains many aspects of how world governments work and work together.
On a negative note, the author seems to think he alone knows all the answers to the world’s ills. I got that idea through the frequent use of the word, “should.” It really annoyed me. I mean, these extremely complex issues don’t have perfect solutions, do they?

[Veronica Dumitru · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mi.a plăcut această carte .Foarte bine structurată în capitole scurte cuprinde noțiuni simple şi concise cam din toate ariile de interes general de la geografie ,la internet şi sănătate globală dar mai ales istoria şi politica explicate pe înțelesul tuturor, ceea ce o face perfectă pentru cititorii neinițiați în aceste domenii.Celor obişnuiți cu astfel de scrieri nu cred ca le oferă nimic nou,doar o reîmprospătare a cunoştiințelor, de altfel după cum autorul însuşi precizează scopul acestei cărți este de a oferi o bază în cunoaşterea lumii , un punct de pornire şi în același timp un imbold pentru a descoperi mai multe.

[Daniel Clausen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an excellent introduction to International Relations and the world. I highly recommend this for beginners or non-beginners who want to brush up their knowledge.

[Yohanes Saputra · Rating 5 out of 5]

The World is a primer for people to acquaint themselves with the world. Here it discusses the history and what is our era, post-Cold War era, really means. Soon, Haass brought me to an overlook of the regions of the world; but this was only at the regional level. In the global level, we are suffering the reality of what we called globalization, or the world that is interconnected where everything comes and goes in an instant. After discussing the regional and global challenges, we are brought up to what makes a country, region, the world orderly (or disorderly). This last chapter actually is the most significant because it is the bedrock for most stability in the world right now, a necessity to be read.

[Evan Milner · Rating 1 out of 5]

Absolutely horrible. It is as though the author read Noam Chomsky's media critiques and thought it would be much easier to bypass the tiresome business of manufacturing consent, choosing instead to try and capture the CNN/CFR worldview between the covers of a single book. Every chapter seems designed to offer the reader just enough information about a subject so as to leave them totally uninformed. Cue the glowing blurbs by such 'luminaries' as Fareed Zakaria, Madeleine Albright, and Ray Dalio (!?) and you get this piece of unmitigated garbage.

Speaking of Chomsky, a quick google search turns up an interview with him in which he mentions a tweet by Haass where he '...instructs us with a straight face that “International order for 4 centuries has been based on non-interference in the internal affairs of others and respect for sovereignty. Russia has violated this norm by seizing Crimea and by interfering in the 2016 US election. We must deal [with] Putin’s Russia as the rogue state it is.” Words fail.' That more or less sums up the tone of the entire book. In fact, Haass goes one better here, writing that 'No one would have the ability—and few would have the desire—to challenge the primacy of the United States given its tradition, with some exceptions, of not seeking to impose its will on others'. Some exceptions indeed. Based on what one finds here, you would have little reason to think that the United States has played anything but a benign role in the international arena during the post-war era. A 'blunder' here, a failure to intervene there (shades of Samantha Power)... but overall top marks.

Not that there haven't been books written from this perspective that are worth reading, but this isn't one of them. For example, on the aftermath of WW2 Haass writes: 'In liberated and newly independent countries, Soviet leaders opposed both democracy and capitalism and sought fealty to their dictates' while the United States worked to promote 'where, possible, pro-capitalist democracies'. Even the most cursory knowledge of the last 75 years suggests that pro-capitalism, rather than democracy, was the non-negotiable part of that particular equation. But that is just the tip of Haass's bias. The Yalta Conference, for instance, is a 'textbook case of the propensity of American presidents to belive that on the strength of their personal relationship with a foreign leader a resolution to intractable problems could be reached, even if that leader was dictatorial and showed an unwavering devotion to what he judged to be his own national interests'. Gee whiz, it's just that American presidents are too darn nice and willing to believe the best in people! Another classic insight occurs when the author, using the standard weasel words 'some argue', proposes that the Vietnam War wasn't a total failure because it 'bought time for several of Vietnam's neighbors to develop politically, economically, and militarily and thereby better resist Communist encroachment'. Thanks America! My favourite bit of all is when Haass, with a straight face, makes the case for nuclear weapons as an instrument of peace: 'It is no eaggeration to say that absent nuclear weapons and the restraint they engendered, we might now be studying World War III rather than the Cold War'. The only word that comes to mind is... golly.

There are countless such examples. It would almost be entertaining if Haass were not one of the most boring writers I've ever encountered. Everything reads like the CIA World Factbook rendered into the dullest prose imaginable. After a while, the temptation to skim was too strong to resist.

Verdict: Read Stephen Kinzer's Overthrow or William Blum's Killing Hope instead. They won't give you a 'brief introduction' to the world, but you'll be better equipped to reject this drivel.

[Lynn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good overview the world from the Western point of you. The history is European but the description of the modern world is very good. It’s covers geography, borders, current states, etc. and very enlightened and respectful. He complains that he’s writing it because he believes that Americans aren’t getting a wide view and history in high schools and colleges. That is probably true in many ways. He wants survey courses that cover everything not specific subjects in history. Having gotten my education in earner times in the 1970s and reaching now I feel I have sine insight. In the 70s We had a right to electives in junior high and some in high school. This allowed us to learn in smaller classes with more specific information and included a lot more in depth. For example we had a full semester course on the Holocaust, to teach it, you have to teach European history and how the Holocaust happened as well as it’s after effects such as the creation of Israel. Now we teach two years of American History in middle school and one year of high school, two years of global history. What happens that there tons of information covered very badly and critical thought isn’t part of it. It’s lecture, notes, exams. Very shallow learning, not the students’ choice and most are disengaged and it’s short term learning. Generic learning may actually teach you less.

[Laura · Rating 4 out of 5]

I’ll admit that I maybe had too high of hopes for this book as an introduction to world issues. Perhaps no book can really accomplish that big a feat. This book had some high points, particular in the first section which provides a lot of historical context. But the author tried to cover too much ground shallowly rather than going into depth when needed. The third section read like a series of pamphlets on major issues with very thin analysis. Issues were way oversimplified, even for a book marketed as an introduction. I kind of wish I had abandoned it half way through because the only material of value was in the first section.

[Ben Larson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential read

Not only is this book brimming with information that will help you understand world affairs, it also was a very good read. The author made history and politics come alive. It serves as an important backdrop to reading the paper and watching the news. Despite some 20 years of formal education, I feel I am better prepared to evaluate world events because I read this book.

[Barrett Gough · Rating 1 out of 5]

If you want to understand the world from an imperious US point-of-view, this is a great book. If you don't, it is not.

[Avani Chandurkar · Rating 4 out of 5]

The World: A Brief Introduction by Richard N. Hasss is a comprehensive primer on many topics related to geopolitics. Written by the President of the Council of Foreign Relations, the author clearly has a command of the subject material and examines global geopolitics from an American perspective. The book delves into various topics such as the Trump era, competition between the US and China/Russia, and the declining role of the US in global affairs. Additionally, it provides a good basic primer on closely related topics such as global trade, terrorism, nuclear deterrence, and cybersecurity. The book also gives an overview of the basic history of international relations since the Treaty of Westphalia. Overall, this is a great introductory book for those getting started in the realm of geopolitics. However, regular readers of global affairs may find it a bit basic. The author also includes notes and resources at the end for those looking for an in-depth reading on any of the topics covered in the book.

[Rose]

Re: the first, "history of the world section:" Any brief history has to leave a lot out. However, this book leaves out anything critical of the US while making space for criticism of other countries. It seems to be a pretty unbalanced history. I didn't continue past this section because its omissions made me mistrustful of the whole approach.

[Aaron Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exceptionally illuminating. Excellent introduction for early college classes.

[Enzo · Rating 5 out of 5]

Overall an incredibly comprehensive introduction to foreign relations. While somewhat redundant at parts it goes over minutia that I hadn't really considered before. In terms of history and basic relations, it really is quite basic and of the book, I feel maybe 1/5 was new to me but even if you know a good chunk this book is a good refresher. At the end, it does what I feel is its most important function, that being explaining the author's position on order in the world system, which was the majority of the new concepts and ideas that I took away after reading, and giving an incredibly comprehensive overview of not only other good texts but good reading materials and media content for the day to day.
As an introductory text 5/5, 10/10 98/100.

[Dan Tadmore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Heaps of breadth, very very little depth