Joshua Cooper Ramo is the author of the international bestseller The Age of the Unthinkable. He is co-chief executive officer and vice chairman of Kissinger Associates and a member of the board of directors of FedEx and Starbucks. His first book, No Visible Horizon, chronicled his experiences as a competitive aerobatic pilot.
Former foreign editor of Time, Ramo pushes the reader into uncomfortable yet exhilarating places with controversial ways of thinking about global challenges (e.g., studying why Hezbollah is the most efficiently run Islamic militant group). His book, which lays bare the flaws in current thinking on everything from American political influence to the economy, is designed to "change the physics of the way we think." Analyzing the failure of the Bush administration's "Democratic Peace Theory" and the fruitless efforts at a Mideast peace process, Ramo suggests that people must "change the role they imagine for themselves from architects of a system they can control to gardeners in a living ecosystem." Ramo's message-that "the most dynamic forces emerge from outside elite circles": "geeks," iconoclasts and maligned populations-is persuasively argued. And while the author doesn't explicitly offer up solutions, he goads readers to approach problems in unexpected ways. His revelatory work argues that there must be some audacity in thinking before there can be any audacity of hope. (Apr.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
You can learn a lot by reading this book. China scholar Ramo (managing director, Kissinger Assoc.) explains his theory of "Deep Security" through a variety of wide-ranging analogies. While much of the focus is on peace in the Middle East and the role of Hizb'allah, we also learn about Gertrude Stein and cubism at the beginning of World War I, the development of video games from Donkey Kong to the Wii, the problem of maximum sustained yields for fish populations, the relationship between treating HIV and drug-resistant TB in South Africa, and the perils of running a business in Brazil while coping with hyperinflation. Again and again, Ramo reminds us of the power of individuals and the accomplishments that can be achieved by taking advantage of creativity and underutilized capacity. While (not surprisingly) he offers no great solutions, much can be learned from the examples he sets forth. Overall, a fascinating look at various aspects of today's complicated world and how interconnecting systems often come to bear in unexpected ways.-Susan Hurst, Miami Univ., Oxford, OH Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
