Toward a Geopolitics of Hope

Toward a Geopolitics of Hope purports a theory of a 'second world' which includes China and Russia amongst others, as a possible counter-weight to the first world hitherto dominated by the United States of America. The authors argue that capitalism provides the common ideological context where the rivalry between the two 'worlds' is taking shape. In this sense, globalization and capitalism are no longer the steadfast allies of democracy as they have often claimed to be. They contend that this rivalry between the first and second world would soon engulf the third world, offering it two developmental options: the neo-liberal first way or the neo-authoritarian second way. The authors make specific reference to the changing position of America and draws upon a wide range of non-Western perspectives, with special attention to India, Burma, and the Arab Spring. They conclude that post-globalization makes a radically democratic case for a global third way, a theory of 'moral realism' that combines the Right's critique of authoritarianism and the Left's critique of capitalism. Bridging the classic imperatives of third-world social justice and first-world security, the authors' moral realism affords the cement for a post-globalist geopolitics of hope.