Why Europe will Run the 21st Century by Mark Leonard

[royalfan5]

I read this book yesterday while laid up with my stomach virus. I found some it to be interesting, and I agreed with some points, mostly that failed states need to be rebuilt from the bottom up, rather than the top down, but I already had that opinion before reading the book. I found the rest a pretty pollyannaish view of how everything is going to go Europe's way because of their love of rules and concenus. The author also failed to address any of Europe problems like unemployment, immigration and agricultral policy, after mentioning them in passing. Overall grade C-.

[Chuck Bao]

Interesting. I’ll have to look for that book.

This review doesn’t seem so positive on the book.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2102-1496747,00.html

He may be right, but it seems counter-intuitive at the moment.

According to that review, Mark Leonard’s point is the bargaining power of the group is much more than single country’s. I would think that economic power is greater than political and military power.

I would think that the 21st century will be Asia’s century. The caveat would be a resource crisis and Europe shouldn’t fare very well with a resource crisis.

[OUinFLA]

without food, you lose.