The End of the World Is Just the Beginning: Mapping the Collapse of Globalization

The text’s central premise is that the period of globalization, which peaked from 1980 through 2015 and created economic efficiency and wealth, is ending. Reviewers of the work are impressed with its reliance on demographic data, analyses of geographic challenges, and command of the workings of multiple economic sectors. The author is thus on solid ground in highlighting the challenges posed by climate change and demographics. Climate change will likely reduce the world’s food supply. Aging populations coupled with declining birth rates threaten government programs and economic health in several countries. Additionally, China’s aggressive posture toward Taiwan in 2023 and its poor handling of COVID, which disrupted supply chains, give credence to Zeihan’s argument about the fragility of the global economy, as do US laws, passed in 2023, encouraging internal manufacture of microchips.

However, many reviewers question the text’s dire predictions for much of the world, specifically China’s collapse and prevalent piracy on the high seas. The book presents stark contrasts between globalized and de-globalized worlds, but many think the reality would more likely fall in between those two states. The US and other wealthy countries, for example, would experience negative economic impacts from oil shortages in other places if such shortages increased coal usage. In anticipation of this issue, wealthy countries might protect oil shipments. Nevertheless, predictions are notoriously difficult. Although Zeihan’s identifying the possible ramifications of de-globalization is useful information, many consider his attempt to describe regional power blocs and the worldwide impact of de-globalization overly ambitious. The intervening variables are too numerous to support these predictions unfolding with certainty.