Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System: Volume 10

Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System distills a systematic process out of the past Dutch and English hegemonies and applies it to the current American hegemony. The authors state that the end of a hegemony cycle always coincides with financial crisis. The current accounting scandals and stock market turmoil could be symptoms of the end of the American hegemony. The book goes into detail into the history and mechanics of each hegemony and describes the transition between each of them. In the conclusions, Asia and more particularly China is pointed out as the next potential hegemon.The underlying theoretical canvas of the book makes sense. It gives a historical and scientific look on the mechanics of globalisation. The book is of course academic in nature, which doesn't always help readability, when having to navigate through references and footnotes. It is only in the conclusions that a more linear tone is taken. Next step for me, exploring some books on the future hegemon: China?

In a simple and concise way, Arrighi et al explain the rise and fall of the Dutch, English and American power in the modern world system (Since 1600 AD). In a 400 years sweep they show the evolution of geopolitics, state, finance, social classes and corporate structure in the rise and decline phases of each power.After they described the processes which have affected the evolution from Dutch to English, English to American and the present weakening of the American power, book provides several possibilities for the future based on previous experiences. One of the conclusions is that corporations remain bound to their country of origin and that a corporate-led world will not survive the United States power, just like previous types of corporations did not survive English or Dutch demise. Another warning is the danger that the last phase of power, which is finance based and characterized by globalisation of finance always ends-up in a disaster: 1772-1773 crash in London, 1929 crash in Wall Street. Collapse of NASDAQ, trouble in Japan, California electricity could be the symptoms of this last phase of American power.An essential book to understand the process of change and how to possibly adapt to it.

Chaos and Governance in the Modern World System is a wonderful and comprehensive sweep of 300 years of power, politics and high finance. It is also a helpful counterpoint to some of the more gloating books filled with triumphilism or dire books of environmental doom-saying often found in when surveying the field.