The Once and Future World Order by Amitav Acharya - ISBN: 9781399811767
Paperback
West’s decline isn’t chaos, but a chance for a better world.
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The Once and Future World Order

Why Global Civilization Will Survive the Decline of the West

$24.96

  • Paperback

    464 pages

  • Release Date

    21 July 2026

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Summary

The epic history of world order, revealing how the decline of the West may be a good thing for its future.

Since the dawn of the twenty-first century, the West has been in crisis. Social unrest, political polarization, and the rise of other great powers - especially China - threaten to unravel today’s Western-led world order. Many fear this would lead to global chaos. But this is a Western illusion.

Surveying five thousand years of global history, political sc…

Book Details

ISBN-13:9781399811767
ISBN-10:1399811762
Author:Amitav Acharya
Publisher:John Murray Press
Imprint:Basic Books
Format:Paperback
Number of Pages:464
Release Date:21 July 2026
Weight:320g
Dimensions:198mm x 128mm x 34mm
What They're Saying

Critics Review

A powerful reminder that not all world orders in history have been Western. This timely book argues that a dominant West is not a necessary condition for a rules-based international framework – Odd Arne Westad, coauthor of THE GREAT TRANSFORMATIONThis book should serve as a model for many other academic disciplines that were founded on similarly colonialist assumptions – Amitav Ghosh, author of SMOKE AND ASHESA refreshingly original take on a potential post-West world order – Shashi Tharoor, author of INGLORIOUS EMPIRETo get a glimpse of the real future that humanity is heading towards, read this book carefully. It will dazzle and excite you and give you great hope for the future – Kishore Mahbubani, author of LIVING THE ASIAN CENTURYA rich tapestry of a book bridging ancient civilizations and modern debates. An essential guide to the post-Western world. – Parag Khanna, author of CONNECTOGRAPHYA deeply informed vision of how nations will draw on their pasts to relate to one another in the future – Rana Mitter, author of FORGOTTEN ALLYThis is the book everyone must read not only to make sense of our past but also the twenty-first century – Ayşe Zarakol, author of BEFORE THE WESTA timely corrective to the blinkered arrogance about the role of the Rest which continues to infect so much Western policy analysis and history-writing. A compelling read – Gareth Evans, former Australian foreign minister and president of the International Crisis GroupBeginning with Sumer and ancient Egypt, Acharya offers an erudite overview of 5,000 years of world history to show how different cultures developed varying but comparable ideas of empire, great power politics and intellectual exchange that mediated relations across continents until the relatively recent and disruptive rise of the West to global dominance – New York Times

About The Author

Amitav Acharya

Amitav Acharya is an award-winning author and distinguished professor of international affairs at American University. He has written for the Washington Post, Financial Times, and Foreign Affairs, among many other media outlets, and he has appeared on CNN, NPR, the BBC, and Al Jazeera. He was born in India and has lived and worked in Singapore, Canada, UK, China and the United States.

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