Spencer Schar is an entrepreneur who enjoys reading in his spare time, and he particularly enjoys the works of Steven Pinker, Daniel Kahnemann, Malcolm Gladwell, and Peter Zeihan. This article will look at Peter Zeihan’s book The End of the World Is Just the Beginning, which explores the risk of deglobalization and ‘decivilization’, culminating in food shortages for much of the global population. The embedded PDF takes a closer look at global food insecurities triggered by Russia’s invasion of the Ukraine.
Although some warn that deglobalization may have already started, few explore its potential impact on the global population in much detail. In a book spanning almost 500 pages, Peter Zeihan theorizes what the world may look like following the collapse of globalization, assuring readers that these are not ‘imaginations but the result of a serious process of prospective analysis. The attached video explores the concept of deglobalization in more detail.
Zeihan bases his elaborations on a change in behavior by the United States. He suggests that the US will no longer need the rest of the world in the same way it once did, with fracking providing the country with energy independence. Zeihan also points out that the US is less likely to invest in building and maintaining alliances with other countries, as it no longer needs backup in the face of a powerful military enemy as was once posed by the USSR.
As a result, Peter Zeihan predicts that the United States will scale back its sea patrols, leaving the world’s oceans without custody. This will pre-empt a decline in global trade, which has been expanding since the mid-1940s. The attached infographic provides some interesting statistics on global sea transportation in 2023.
For generations, humankind has strived to develop faster, better, more cost-effective ways of doing things. However, Peter Zeihan suggests that we may have reached a tipping point. In The End of the World Is Just the Beginning, the author and geopolitical strategist presents scope for a “next” world where countries and regions have no other option but to manufacture their own goods, secure their own energy, grow their own food, and fight their own battles, relying on populations that are both shrinking and aging.
Zeihan guides readers on an illuminating yet disconcerting journey; the book is packed with foresight, as well as his trademark irreverence and wit. The End of the World Is Just the Beginning has been well received, with US Army Maneuver Centre of Excellence Commanding Officer Major General Patrick Donahoe describing it as “a worthy read” and Eurasia Group President Ian Bremmer hailing Zeihan’s work as “an original yet intuitive theory of geopolitics.”