Top Highlights

• The natives’ annihilation was so complete the United States faces little of the internal heartburn of undigested peoples of imperial systems. Third, that expansion—both in population and geographic terms—muddled the differences among the coastal states of the early nation. Thirteen distinct identities merged in the interior into something new and m...
• In contrast, I felt that the alliance network, bereft of the security demands of the Cold War, had slid into a new role. Instead of defending the allies on the plains of Northern Europe or in the seas of East Asia, it instead was spreading security to the global commons. This was becoming an end unto itself that was superseding the old logic of all...
• Disunited Nations is about what happens when major powers decide they are better off competing instead of cooperating. It is a book about what happens when the global Order isn’t just falling apart but when many leaders feel their country will be better off tearing it down. We’re going to look at the rise of Trump and leaders like him. We’re going ...
• The first is continuity: the idea that the positive things that make your life today possible—health, shelter, clean water, food, education, clothing, a functioning government, and so on—will still be around tomorrow. No brigands will steal your cow; no dryad will kidnap your children; no horde will descend from the distant horizon and burn down yo...
• Not all threats to continuity are from bullets or sharp sticks. Drought and flood can wreck a system just as easily. Or a rampaging, homegrown mob. Or a coup. Or particularly crappy leadership. And never underestimate the power of a good plague. Breaks in continuity shatter institutions, disrupt food production, wreck infrastructure, break educatio...