A Superpower Transformed


Book Description

Geopolitics and globalization collided in the 1970s, and their collision produced difficult challenges for the makers of American foreign policy. A Superpower Transformed explains how policymakers across three administrations worked to manage complex international changes in a tumultuous era, and it explores the legacies of their efforts to accommodate American power to new forces stirring in world affairs.




Superpower


Book Description

Meet Michael Skelly, the man boldly harnessing wind energy that could power America’s future and break its fossil fuel dependence in this “essential, compelling look into the future of the nation’s power grid” (Bryan Burrough, author of The Big Rich). The United States is in the midst of an energy transition. We have fallen out of love with dirty fossil fuels and want to embrace renewable energy sources like wind and solar. A transition from a North American power grid that is powered mostly by fossil fuels to one that is predominantly clean is feasible, but it would require a massive building spree—wind turbines, solar panels, wires, and billions of dollars would be needed. Enter Michael Skelly, an infrastructure builder who began working on wind energy in 2000 when many considered the industry a joke. Eight years later, Skelly helped build the second largest wind power company in the United States—and sold it for $2 billion. Wind energy was no longer funny—it was well on its way to powering more than 6% of electricity in the United States. Award-winning journalist, Russel Gold tells Skelly’s story, which in many ways is the story of our nation’s evolving relationship with renewable energy. Gold illustrates how Skelly’s company, Clean Line Energy, conceived the idea for a new power grid that would allow sunlight where abundant to light up homes in the cloudy states thousands of miles away, and take wind from the Great Plains to keep air conditioners running in Atlanta. Thrilling, provocative, and important, Superpower is a fascinating look at America’s future.




China 2.0


Book Description

Marina Zhang addresses her topic with vigor and a touch of involved passion that is often missing from the clinical analyses that frequent the China business bookshelves. The impact of technology on china's development and the way it is so thoroughly informing China's economic and social transformation is a significant insight which Ms. Zhang's book explores in well-researched detail and through fresh eyes. China 2.0 is a cogent and worthwhile addition to any china businessman's or scholar's bookshelf. - Clinton Dines, Former CEO, BHP Billiton China There is no lack of opinions about china, and certainly there is much information. Those that succeed know how to find information that is factual, rich and that can serve as a guide. That is what china 2.0 does. It is a resourceful guide for anyone looking for success in china's booming economy. - Scott Kronick, President, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide, Beijing Want to reach China's one billion consumers? then China 2.0 will be your indispensible guide to understanding this transforming giant, from leveraging Internet and Web 2.0 channels to working with China's emerging private capital markets. Don't venture into china without it! - Charlene Li, Partner, Altimeter Group, and Co-author of Groundswell A key question in china's evolution towards a fully modern economy is whether it can develop efficient and possibly new types of firm and new social institutions. This will depend heavily on how information comes to be handled. this pioneering book compellingly explores this highly significant new questions. - Gordon Redding, Professor of Asian Business, INSEAD, and Author of The Future of Chinese Capitalism The unique and compelling viewpoint offered by Marina Zhang on the changes in china, and the impact that new and emerging technologies are having in this transformation, makes China 2.0 a positive exception to the question of whether or not the world really needs another China business book. - Michael Ricks, CEO, Investor Growth capital Asia Limited and Former CEO, Ericsson China This book opens the lid on the new era that has begun inside China as it is transformed by the power of new technologies, led by Web 2.0. With insights that only an insider can bring, it deftly highlights the opportunities and challenges for business people, policymakers, researchers and students alike. If reading this book doesn't open your eyes, cause you to abandon old prejudices and lead you to redefine your responses to one of the most far-reaching developments in the world today, then nothing will! - Peter J. Williamson, Professor of International Management, Judge business School, University of Cambridge, and Author of Dragons at Your Door




Suicide of a Superpower


Book Description

The New York Times–bestselling conservative author explains why he believes certain social trends will lead to the downfall of the United States. America is disintegrating. The “one Nation under God, indivisible” of the Pledge of Allegiance is passing away. In a few decades, that America will be gone forever. In its place will arise a country unrecognizable to our parents. This is the thrust of Pat Buchanan’s Suicide of a Superpower, his most controversial and thought-provoking book to date. Buchanan traces the disintegration to three historic changes: America’s loss of her cradle faith, Christianity; the moral, social, and cultural collapse that have followed from that loss; and the slow death of the people who created and ruled the nation. And as our nation disintegrates, our government is failing in its fundamental duties, unable to defend our borders, balance our budgets, or win our wars. How Americans are killing the country they profess to love, and the fate that awaits us if we do not turn around, is what Suicide of a Superpower is all about. Praise for Suicide of a Superpower “Suicide of a Superpower traces the changes in governance and culture in America that foreshadow a decline of epic proportions. . . . Buchanan is no stranger to controversy. Nor is he prone to exaggerate. The crises he describes are real, and he is not afraid to say they ‘may prove too much for our democracy to cope with.’” —Jack Kenny, The New American Magazine “Progressives may recoil at these assertions as well as his positions on immigration, affirmative action and morality, though they may share his sentiments regarding war and America’s unnecessary military presence around the world. Not to disappoint his loyal followers, Buchanan reveals the essence of conservative thought and its origins with clarity and precision.” —Publishers Weekly




Fearing the Worst


Book Description

After World War II, the escalating tensions of the Cold War shaped the international system. Fearing the Worst explains how the Korean War fundamentally changed postwar competition between the United States and the Soviet Union into a militarized confrontation that would last decades. Samuel F. Wells Jr. examines how military and political events interacted to escalate the conflict. Decisions made by the Truman administration in the first six months of the Korean War drove both superpowers to intensify their defense buildup. American leaders feared the worst-case scenario—that Stalin was prepared to start World War III—and raced to build up strategic arms, resulting in a struggle they did not seek out or intend. Their decisions stemmed from incomplete interpretations of Soviet and Chinese goals, especially the belief that China was a Kremlin puppet. Yet Stalin, Mao, and Kim Il-sung all had their own agendas, about which the United States lacked reliable intelligence. Drawing on newly available documents and memoirs—including previously restricted archives in Russia, China, and North Korea—Wells analyzes the key decision points that changed the course of the war. He also provides vivid profiles of the central actors as well as important but lesser known figures. Bringing together studies of military policy and diplomacy with the roles of technology, intelligence, and domestic politics in each of the principal nations, Fearing the Worst offers a new account of the Korean War and its lasting legacy.




The Shock of the Global


Book Description

From the vantage point of the United States or Western Europe, the 1970s was a time of troubles: economic “stagflation,” political scandal, and global turmoil. Yet from an international perspective it was a seminal decade, one that brought the reintegration of the world after the great divisions of the mid-twentieth century. It was the 1970s that introduced the world to the phenomenon of “globalization,” as networks of interdependence bound peoples and societies in new and original ways. The 1970s saw the breakdown of the postwar economic order and the advent of floating currencies and free capital movements. Non-state actors rose to prominence while the authority of the superpowers diminished. Transnational issues such as environmental protection, population control, and human rights attracted unprecedented attention. The decade transformed international politics, ending the era of bipolarity and launching two great revolutions that would have repercussions in the twenty-first century: the Iranian theocratic revolution and the Chinese market revolution. The Shock of the Global examines the large-scale structural upheaval of the 1970s by transcending the standard frameworks of national borders and superpower relations. It reveals for the first time an international system in the throes of enduring transformations.




How Obama Is Transforming America's Military from Superpower to Paper Tiger


Book Description

Barack Obama has made it clear that he thinks the world would be a better and more peaceful place if the United States were too weak to affect the course of events. Obama, along with Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, has slashed missile defense, dramatically reduced investment in future military technologies, and broken promises to our allies. In addition, Obama is transforming our military into a politically correct force that no one will want to join. In this incisive Broadside, Jed Babbin analyzes Obama's military strategy and shows how he has pursued a consistent course of action that defines him and his overriding objective - to reduce America from a superpower to a paper tiger. These are not the policies of a president who wants America to be strong, safe, and secure. But they are the policies that define Barack Obama. ENCOUNTER BROADSIDES: a new series of critical pamphlets from Encounter Books. Uniting an 18th-century sense of political urgency and rhetorical wit (think The Federalist Papers, Common Sense) with 21st-century technology and channels of distribution, Encounter Broadsides offer indispensable ammunition for intelligent debate on the critical issues of our time. Written with passion by some of our most authoritative authors, Encounter Broadsides make the case for liberty and the institutions of democratic capitalism at a time when they are under siege from the resurgence of collectivist sentiment. Read them in a sitting and come away knowing the best we can hope for and the worst we must fear.




Superpowered


Book Description

This New York Times and USA TODAY bestseller is the perfect tool for children facing new social and emotional challenges in an increasingly disconnected world! This how-to book from two psychology experts--packed with fun graphics and quizzes--will help kids transform stress, worry, and anxiety. Give it to fans of The Confidence Code for Girls and Raina Telgemeier's Guts. Now more than ever, kids need to feel empowered as they work through anxiety, overwhelm, and uncertainty brought on by the world around them. With its helpful, hands-on suggestions and tips, SUPERPOWERED will be embraced by every kid with insecurities, worries, and anxious thoughts. Renee Jain (founder of GoZen!) and Dr. Shefali Tsabary (New York Times bestelling author and Oprah contributor) make readers the superheroes of their own stories. They introduce a toolkit of easy-to-understand methods for recognizing anxious behaviors, identifying the root causes of worried thinking, and realizing that strength can be found in reclaiming one's inner superpowers. With the help of humorous artwork and interactive elements, readers find their P.O.W.E.R. (an acronym that inspires mindfulness and resilience practices) and gain lasting mental strength.




Influence Is Your Superpower


Book Description

Rediscover the superpower that makes good things happen, from the professor behind Yale School of Management's most popular class “The new rules of persuasion for a better world.”—Charles Duhigg, author of the bestsellers The Power of Habit and Smarter Faster Better You were born influential. But then you were taught to suppress that power, to follow the rules, to wait your turn, to not make waves. Award-winning Yale professor Zoe Chance will show you how to rediscover the superpower that brings great ideas to life. Influence doesn’t work the way you think because you don’t think the way you think. Move past common misconceptions—such as the idea that asking for more will make people dislike you—and understand why your go-to negotiation strategies are probably making you less influential. Discover the one thing that influences behavior more than anything else. Learn to cultivate charisma, negotiate comfortably and creatively, and spot manipulators before it’s too late. Along the way, you’ll meet alligators, skydivers, a mind reader in a gorilla costume, Jennifer Lawrence, Genghis Khan, and the man who saved the world by saying no. Influence Is Your Superpower will teach you how to transform your life, your organization, and perhaps even the course of history. It’s an ethical approach to influence that will make life better for everyone, starting with you.




Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China


Book Description

Winner of the Lionel Gelber Prize National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist An Economist Best Book of the Year | A Financial Times Book of the Year | A Wall Street Journal Book of the Year | A Washington Post Book of the Year | A Bloomberg News Book of the Year | An Esquire China Book of the Year | A Gates Notes Top Read of the Year Perhaps no one in the twentieth century had a greater long-term impact on world history than Deng Xiaoping. And no scholar of contemporary East Asian history and culture is better qualified than Ezra Vogel to disentangle the many contradictions embodied in the life and legacy of China’s boldest strategist. Once described by Mao Zedong as a “needle inside a ball of cotton,” Deng was the pragmatic yet disciplined driving force behind China’s radical transformation in the late twentieth century. He confronted the damage wrought by the Cultural Revolution, dissolved Mao’s cult of personality, and loosened the economic and social policies that had stunted China’s growth. Obsessed with modernization and technology, Deng opened trade relations with the West, which lifted hundreds of millions of his countrymen out of poverty. Yet at the same time he answered to his authoritarian roots, most notably when he ordered the crackdown in June 1989 at Tiananmen Square. Deng’s youthful commitment to the Communist Party was cemented in Paris in the early 1920s, among a group of Chinese student-workers that also included Zhou Enlai. Deng returned home in 1927 to join the Chinese Revolution on the ground floor. In the fifty years of his tumultuous rise to power, he endured accusations, purges, and even exile before becoming China’s preeminent leader from 1978 to 1989 and again in 1992. When he reached the top, Deng saw an opportunity to creatively destroy much of the economic system he had helped build for five decades as a loyal follower of Mao—and he did not hesitate.