The Eurasian Century (hot Wars, Cold Wars, And The Making Of The Modern World)

By (author) Brands, Hal
Short description/annotation:
An urgent and incisive new framework for understanding the origins–and stakes–of global conflict with China, Russia and Iran
Description:
We often think of the modern era as the age of American power. In reality, we’re living in a long, violent Eurasian century. Eurasia is a strategic prize without equal—which is why the world has been roiled, reshaped and nearly destroyed by clashes over the supercontinent. Since the early twentieth century, autocratic powers have aspired for dominance by seizing commanding positions in the world’s strategic heartland. Offshore sea powers, namely the United Kingdom and America, have sought to make the world safe for democracy by keeping Eurasia in balance. America’s rivalries with China, Russia and Iran are the next round in this geopolitical game. Hal Brands argues that a better understanding of Eurasia’s strategic geography can illuminate the contours of rivalry and conflict in today’s world. The Eurasian Century explains how revolutions in technology and warfare and the rise of toxic ideologies of conquest made Eurasia the centre of twentieth-century geopolitics—with pressing implications for the struggles that will define the twenty-first.
Review quote:
"[The Eurasian Century] provides a brisk 20th-century military history interwoven with intellectual portraits of the founders of what we now know as geopolitics… The result is a brisk and engagingly written work."
Biographical note:
Hal Brands is the Henry Kissinger Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies, senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion. He is also the author of The Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World and was named to the TIME100 Next list in 2024. He lives in Bethesda, Maryland.