The second world : empires and influence in the new global order / Parag Khanna.

Includes bibliographical references (p. [353]-376) and index.

Pt. I: The West's East. Brussels : the new Rome ; The Russian devolution ; Ukraine : from border to bridge ; The Balkans : eastern questions ; Turkey : marching east and west ; The Caucasian corridor ; Conclusion : stretching Europe -- Pt. II: Affairs of the heartland. The Silk Road and the Great Game ; The Russia that was ; Tibet and Xinjiang : the new bamboo curtain ; Kazakhstan : "happiness is multiple pipelines" ; Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan : sovereign of everything, master of nothing ; Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan : men behaving badly ; Afghanistan and Pakistan : taming south-central Asia ; Conclusion: A change of heart -- Pt. III: The end of the Monroe Doctrine. The new rules of the game ; Mexico : the umbilical cord ; Venezuela : Bolâivar's revenge ; Colombia : the Andean Balkans? ; Brazil : the southern pole ; Argentina and Chile : very fraternal twins ; Conclusion : beyond Monroe -- Pt. IV: In search of the "Middle East." The shattered belt ; The Maghreb : Europe's southern shore ; Egypt : between bureaucrats and theocrats ; The Mashreq : road maps ; The former Iraq : buffer, black hole, and broken boundary ; Iran : virtues and vices ; Gulf streams ; Conclusion: Arabian sand dunes -- Pt. V: Asia for Asians. From outside in to inside out ; China's first-world seduction ; Malaysia and Indonesia : the greater Chinese co-prosperity sphere ; Myanmar, Thailand, and Vietnam : the inner triangle ; Size matters : the four Chinas -- Conclusion: The search for equilibrium in a non-American world.

This global tour of the 21st century world shows how America's dominance has been suddenly replaced by a geopolitical marketplace wherein the European Union and China compete with the United States to shape world order. This contest is hottest in the Second World: pivotal regions in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and East Asia. International affairs expert Khanna explores the evolution of geopolitics through such underreported, fascinating, and complicated countries as Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Colombia, Libya, Vietnam, and Malaysia--nations whose resources will ultimately determine the fate of the three superpowers, but whose futures are perennially uncertain. Along the way, Khanna also explains how Arabism and Islamism compete for the Arab soul, reveals how Iran and Saudi Arabia play the superpowers against one another, unmasks Singapore's inspirational role in East Asia, and psychoanalyzes the Second-World leaders whose decisions are reshaping the balance of power.--From publisher description.