Whether one likes it or not, the reality of our time is the following: At the beginning of the 21st century, the United States is not only the most powerful nation on earth but the most powerful that has ever existed. Given the contradictory roles the United States plays in the world, it is fated to be the catalyst for either a new global community or for global chaos. If the United States doesn’t lead, Zbigniew Brzezinski contends, rather than merely dominate by force, it will rouse worldwide hostility.
Regarding the global role that the United States should play, Brzezinski argues for a more complex view than the one that is dominant today. The United States is the world’s policeman, but it must be seen as a fair one. It is entitled to demand a higher level of security than other nations, but it is also the proponent of essential freedoms. It is uniquely powerful, but uniquely and chronically vulnerable. Globalisation prevents even the most powerful from being completely secure.
This is an impressively lucid critical assessment, informed by many years of experience and foreign policy analyses, of the major stakes facing the world today and of what should be the future of American leadership.

“Clear-eyed, tough minded… geostrategic thinking in the grand tradition of Bismarck.” Samuel P. Huntington

“One of the most penetrating analysts of international affairs and… one of the leading practitioners of the art of strategy.” Paul Wolfowitz

“ [A] book to be read and to be taken seriously.” Helmut Schmidt

Zbigniew Brzezinski is currently a counsellor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) and a professor of foreign policy at Johns Hopkins University. The National Security Advisor under President Carter, he is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the author of several books, including The Grand Chessboard.