Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism - Tapa dura

"Required reading to help repair a world in pieces and build a world at peace."
-- António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General

"The best book yet on the waves Donald Trump rode to power. Ian Bremmer is right that rage and scorn are not plans. He provides good practical ideas for what can be done."
--Lawrence Summers, professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and former director or the National Economic Council

"Few can beat Ian Bremmer in taking the pulse on the health of nations and the world. Here he dives into the divisions and disputes of the wave of protests and populism that gave the US Donald Trump and Europe Brexit."
--Carl Bildt, co-chair of European Council on Foreign Relations

"My favorite thinker on geopolitics offers a masterful analysis of why globalism crashed and populism has soared. This book won't just help you predict the future of nations; it will play a role in shaping that future."
--Adam Grant, author of Give and Take, Originals, and Option B with Sheryl Sandberg

"A crisp and compelling anatomy of present political ills across many countries. Bremmer's discussion of global approaches to revising the social contract between government and citizen offers a welcome ray of light."
--Anne-Marie Slaughter, president & CEO of New America

"Global politics is a jungle today. Thank goodness Ian Bremmer can be your guide."
--David Miliband, president and CEO of the International Rescue Committee

"Once again, Ian Bremmer provides a striking preview of tomorrow's top stories. A timely warning, but also a source of hope, Us vs. Them is required reading for those worried about our world's future."
--Nouriel Roubini, author of Crisis Economics; professor at New York University's Stern School of Business; chairman of Roubini Macro Associates

"Ian Bremmer is provocative, controversial, and always intelligent about the state of our world, which he knows so well!"
--Christine Lagarde, Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund (IMF)

New York Times bestseller

"A cogent analysis of the concurrent Trump/Brexit phenomena and a dire warning about what lies ahead...a lucid, provocative book." --Kirkus Reviews

Those who championed globalization once promised a world of winners, one in which free trade would lift all the world's boats, and extremes of left and right would give way to universally embraced liberal values. The past few years have shattered this fantasy, as those who've paid the price for globalism's gains have turned to populist and nationalist politicians to express fury at the political, media, and corporate elites they blame for their losses.

The United States elected an anti-immigration, protectionist president who promised to "put America first" and turned a cold eye on alliances and treaties. Across Europe, anti-establishment political parties made gains not seen in decades. The United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union.

And as Ian Bremmer shows in this eye-opening book, populism is still spreading. Globalism creates plenty of both winners and losers, and those who've missed out want to set things right. They've seen their futures made obsolete. They hear new voices and see new faces all about them. They feel their cultures shift. They don't trust what they read. They've begun to understand the world as a battle for the future that pits "us" vs. "them."

Bremmer points to the next wave of global populism, one that hits emerging nations before they have fully emerged. As in Europe and America, citizens want security and prosperity, and they're becoming increasingly frustrated with governments that aren't capable of providing them. To protect themselves, many government will build walls, both digital and physical. For instance...
  *  In Brazil and other fast-developing countries, civilians riot when higher expectations for better government aren't being met--the downside of their own success in lifting millions from poverty.
  *  In Mexico, South Africa, Turkey, Indonesia, Egypt and other emerging states, frustration with government is on the rise and political battle lines are being drawn.
  *  In China, where awareness of inequality is on the rise, the state is building a system to use the data that citizens generate to contain future demand for change
  *  In India, the tools now used to provide essential services for people who've never had them can one day be used to tighten the ruling party's grip on power.

When human beings feel threatened, we identify the danger and look for allies. We use the enemy, real or imagined, to rally friends to our side. This book is about the ways in which people will define these threats as fights for survival. It's about the walls governments will build to protect insiders from outsiders and the state from its people.

And it's about what we can do about it.