Easternization: Asia's Rise and America's Decline From Obama to Trump and Beyond

**NAMED NPR "BEST BOOKS OF 2017""**

From the winner of the 2016 Orwell Prize and the European Press Prize for Commentator of the Year, a provocative analysis of how a new era of global instability has begun, as the flow of wealth and power turns from West to East.
 
Easternization is the defining trend of our age — the growing wealth of Asian nations is transforming the international balance of power. This shift to the East is shaping the lives of people all over the world, the fate of nations, and the great questions of war and peace.
 
A troubled but rising China is now challenging America’s supremacy, and the ambitions of other Asian powers — including Japan, North Korea, India, and Pakistan — have the potential to shake the whole world. Meanwhile the West is struggling with economic malaise and political populism, the Arab world is in turmoil, and Russia longs to reclaim its status as a great power.
 
As it becomes clear that the West’s historic power and influence is receding, Gideon Rachman offers a road map to the turbulent process that will define the international politics of the twenty-first century.

"With lucid, easily readable prose – as befits the chief foreign affairs columnist of the Financial Times – Easternization examines the ways in which global power is shifting to the East – read mostly China and, to some extent, India – and the challenge that poses to the West and its established order. Donald Trump's election, and his inclination toward isolationism, only make this book, and its argument, more relevant." —NPR, ‘BEST BOOKS OF 2017’ Selection

“Informed on history and up to date, [Easternization] is a sprightly, pointed primer on world affairs.”—Foreign Affairs
 
“Gideon Rachman’s Easternization, his new survey of a transformed Asia, admirably does what so little writing on foreign affairs attempts. It treats with equal facility economics, geopolitics, security, enough history for needed background, official thinking, and public attitudes. Rachman, chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times, has an eye for the telling statistic and for the memorable detail that makes it stick. He packs an enormous amount of information into a short book and opens windows of understanding for nonexperts onto this immensely important three fifths of humanity.” —New York Review of Books

“A superb survey of global affairs.”—Fareed Zakaria, CNN

"The domination of the Atlantic rim nations over the rest of the globe may seem like it is fated, since it has been the power dynamic for nearly half a millennium. But the truth, as Mr. Rachman points out, is that it is an anomaly in the longer-run pattern of history...In “Easternization,” Mr. Rachman, the foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times, offers a birds-eye view of the transformation—some would say collapse—of the post-World War II global order. In brisk, engaging prose, he takes us around the world in 14 chapters, beginning with Asia, then moving to Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and what he calls the “borderlands” between East and West, including Ukraine, Turkey and Hungary...Asia’s new predominance—which essentially means China’s increasing power—is taken as the starting point of Mr. Rachman’s narrative. He makes the convincing, chilling case that the military gap between the United States and China is rapidly narrowing and that the “focal point of Chinese-American military rivalry is the control of the Western Pacific,” which is now “disputed territory.” Reviewing China’s challenge to America’s decadeslong predominance in Asia’s waters, Mr. Rachman links it to a broader Chinese goal, led by Mr. Xi, of finally overcoming China’s so-called “century of humiliation.”This is a fascinating story...” —WALL STREET JOURNAL

“This intelligent and provocative new book by [The Financial Times] leading Chief Foreign Affairs Commentator, Gideon Rachman, reminds us of different requirements for journalistic excellence: historical education, engagement in scholarly debates and tireless travel to interview global decision-makers.” —NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW

“Weaving a smattering of history with insights gleaned from his interviews with global power players, Rachman offers a fast-paced and diverting analysis of the challenges facing U.S. foreign policy in the Pacific.” —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

“A focused delineation of the shifting center of gravity toward Asia and the need for a strenuous Western response without losing global primacy. Financial Times chief foreign affairs commentator Rachman (Zero-Sum Future: American Power in an Age of Anxiety, 2011), a recent winner of the Orwell Prize, presents a fair, astute assessment of China's rise during the past few decades in relation to its nervous neighbors, and especially the nuanced—and highly criticized—response of President Barack Obama... Rachman carefully looks at both India's and Russia's roles in the global shift toward "easternization," and he considers the American and Western response, which has been largely ineffectual since the crises of 2008...A sage, forward-seeing study to be heeded.” —KIRKUS

"China’s challenge to the established postwar order needs to be taken seriously...The gravity of economic and military power, [Rachman] argues, is moving from West to East. He is thinking of more than the new class of Chinese billionaires; he includes India, a country that might one day surpass even China as an economic powerhouse, and reminds us that Japan has been one of the world’s largest economies for some time now... many of Rachman’s informants belong to an international élite that cannot be easily pinned down to East or West. It is refreshing that he does not depend on Lee Kuan Yew or Henry Kissinger for his knowledge of Asia...we want to know what senior diplomats, government ministers, heads of state, and well-connected academics think...One of Rachman’s most cogent insights is that having so many Asian allies dependent on U.S. military force may turn out to be a weakness rather than a strength." —NEW YORKER

"What this book is really about, and is very good at describing, is the growing impact of China on its neighbors, on the world" –THE ECONOMIST

"Excellent . . . Rachman’s theme takes him on a most interesting and stimulating tour du monde. His discussion of the impact of China’s rise on south-east Asia, contrary to the great majority of accounts, is subtle and nuanced... A most informative, readable and interesting piece of work that deserves a wide readership." –GUARDIAN
 
 “A vivid and persuasive analysis of the dramatic shifts in global power. . . In his timely new book, Easternization, Gideon Rachman articulates a clear and persuasive idea. . . [His] flair for rich anecdotes, clever writing, strong analysis and original insight are impressive. . . Easternization hits its mark, with a wide range of arguments and prognostications that scholars and policymakers must contemplate as we consider the coming Asian century.”  –FINANCIAL TIMES

"Easternization... chronicles the economic potency and the diplomatic and military posturing of Asian elites... Rachman is one of the few sensible pundits in the Anglo-American establishment." —Pankaj Mishra, Guardian, author of The Age of Anger

“We are witness in this very decade to one of the greatest geopolitical shifts in the global power balances. . . This tale has many chroniclers and numerous exponents, but by far the most insightful, sensible, and compelling is Easternization.  This really is one of those works where you can say you wished our political leaders would read and ponder upon its great implications.” —Paul Kennedy, author of The Rise and Fall of the Great Powers

“A brilliant and engrossing account of the emerging power struggles of the twenty-first century. . . Rachman’s access to world leaders from Beijing to Washington provides a unique perspective on international politics.” —Andrew Roberts, author of The Storm of War

“Gideon Rachman zeroes in on the most important geopolitical issue of our time. . . An indispensable guide to the Great Game of the twenty-first century.” —Nicholas Burns, Harvard University and former U.S. Under Secretary of State

“An extraordinarily thoughtful and eloquent guide to a world in the midst of profound transition. Rachman navigates deftly an international landscape full of powerful and often contradictory currents.” —Ambassador William J. Burns, President, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and former Deputy Secretary of State

“Rachman’s level-headed book can be read in one long sitting. . . For those that have already accepted the idea that the West will not—and cannot possibly—dominate as it did at the end of the last century, then Rachman’s book provides both rigor and useful paradigms to order one’s thoughts.”  —ASIAN REVIEW OF BOOKS 

"A masterly account ... the best survey of global affairs I have read for some time. . . Rachman’s book offers a first-rate primer to the world in which we live." –SUNDAY TIMES

“Gideon Rachman’s elegantly written and hugely informed Easternization is an essential survey of the migration of economic and political power away from the USA and Europe, towards Russia, China and also possibly India in the long term. . . Cogent and wise.”– LITERARY REVIEW

“Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs columnist for the Financial Times, cogently puts forward the case that Easternisation is the trend of the 21st century.” –IRISH EXAMINER

"A superb account. . . An absorbing and sobering study." –DAILY TELEGRAPH

"[An] accomplished book." –PROSPECT

"Even as Hong Kong prefers the lifestyle and a more open market democracy that it inherited from British colonizers, there is little doubt that widespread 'easternization' is happening, Rachman argues in his book. . . The political implications of China's rise in economic power are profound. Rachman lays them all out in a few key chapters in his book, which is not solely China-centric. He looks at the U.S. and the Korean dilemmas, the impacts of a failed Middle East policy on the U.S. and -- in a positive nod to the West -- how American (and, believe it or not, European!) institutions will save us from a one world government ruled from Beijing." –FORBES.COM