1989 ushered in a new age of freedom and prosperity. Thirty years later, the golden era is over. What went wrong? How did the age of globalization – of growing connectivity, affluence, and growth – give way? Jonathan Holslag navigates through the calm seas and rip tides of global politics from the Cold War to the present. He tells a story of faltering momentum and squandered opportunities that explains how the West's sources of strength were lost to rising consumerism, unbalanced trade, and half-hearted diplomatic engagement. All the while, other powers, like China and Russia, grew stronger. With his trademark verve, Holslag untangles the threads of this story to reveal that it was not so much the ambition of China, the cunning of Putin, or the greed of African strongmen that led the world into this dark place; it was the failure of the West to listen to its people, to show clear leadership, and reinvent itself, in spite of ample evidence that things were going awry. Impressive in scope and analytical depth, World Politics since 1989 is a magisterial account of how we got to where we are and what lessons can be learned from the political arrogance and complacency of the recent past.

Emboldened by economic strength and growing military power, China is emerging as a challenger to US dominance in the Pacific. But its promised peaceful rise has done little to convince regional powers that it will not use force to press longstanding territorial claims or attempt sea-denial operations in Asia's lucrative trade routes. Uncertainty about Beijing's intentions could thus beget a new, unpredictable arms race as states scramble to protect their interests. For the short term, however, governments are weighing up the question of how far their interests may be served by cooperating with China and trying to usher it into the role of a responsible global power, while hedging their bets with traditional alliances and military modernisation. This issue analyses China's inexorable rise from peasant society to economic powerhouse. In charting the line that Beijing has walked in building up its forces alongside its network of trading links to Asia and the US, it reveals the challenge that lies ahead for policymakers: namely, to follow China's development ever more closely, to determine whether it could come to see the costs of military conflict as outweighing the benefits of peaceful trade and economic growth.

Emboldened by economic strength and growing military power, China is emerging as a challenger to US dominance in the Pacific. But its promised peaceful rise has done little to convince regional powers that it will not use force to press longstanding territorial claims or attempt sea-denial operations in Asia's lucrative trade routes. Uncertainty about Beijing's intentions could thus beget a new, unpredictable arms race as states scramble to protect their interests. For the short term, however, governments are weighing up the question of how far their interests may be served by cooperating with China and trying to usher it into the role of a responsible global power, while hedging their bets with traditional alliances and military modernisation.
This issue analyses China's inexorable rise from peasant society to economic powerhouse. In charting the line that Beijing has walked in building up its forces alongside its network of trading links to Asia and the US, it reveals the challenge that lies ahead for policymakers: namely, to follow China's development ever more closely, to determine whether it could come to see the costs of military conflict as outweighing the benefits of peaceful trade and economic growth.

A three-thousand year history of the world that examines the causes of war and the search for peace In three thousand years of history, China has spent at least eleven centuries at war. The Roman Empire was in conflict during at least 50 per cent of its lifetime. Since 1776, the United States has spent over one hundred years at war. The dream of peace has been universal in the history of humanity. So why have we so rarely been able to achieve it? In A Political History of the World, Jonathan Holslag has produced a sweeping history of the world, from the Iron Age to the present, that investigates the causes of conflict between empires, nations and peoples and the attempts at diplomacy and cosmopolitanism. A birds-eye view of three thousand years of history, the book illuminates the forces shaping world politics from Ancient Egypt to the Han Dynasty, the Pax Romana to the rise of Islam, the Peace of Westphalia to the creation of the United Nations. This truly global approach enables Holslag to search for patterns across different eras and regions, and explore larger questions about war, diplomacy, and power. Has trade fostered peace? What are the limits of diplomacy? How does environmental change affect stability? Is war a universal sin of power? At a time when the threat of nuclear war looms again, this is a much-needed history intended for students of international politics, and anyone looking for a background on current events.

For all their spectacular growth, China and India must still lift a hundred million citizens out of poverty and create jobs for the numerous laborers. Both powers hope trade and investment will sustain national unity. For the first time, Jonathan Holslag identifies these objectives as new sources of rivalry and argues that China and India cannot grow without fierce contest.

Though he recognizes that both countries wish to maintain stable relations, Holslag argues that success in implementing economic reform will give way to conflict. This rivalry is already tangible in Asia as a whole, where shifting patterns of economic influence have altered the balance of power and have led to shortsighted policies that undermine regional stability. Holslag also demonstrates that despite two decades of peace, mutual perceptions have become hostile, and a military game of tit-for-tat promises to diminish prospects for peace.

Holslag therefore refutes the notion that development and interdependence lead to peace, and he does so by embedding rich empirical evidence within broader debates on international relations theory. His book is down-to-earth and realistic while also taking into account the complexities of internal policymaking. The result is a fascinating portrait of the complicated interaction among economic, political, military, and perceptional levels of diplomacy.