Hazel Henderson Reviews Connectography
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Book Review
Connectography: Mapping The Future of Global Civilization By Parag Khanna, Random House, New York, 2016
This book is bad news for President Trump's chief advisor, Steve Bannon, and his colleagues at Breitbart Media. Author Parag Khanna's meticulous mapping of our planet's human-designed infrastructure cannot be deconstructed, and neither can its administrative apparatus of global agreements and deal making---short of a nuclear holocaust. Parag Khanna, PHD, from the London School of Economics, professor at the National University of Singapore, has advised the New American Foundation, the Brookings Institution, and the US National Intelligence Council, and worked in Iraq and Afghanistan for US Special Operations Forces.
In Connectography, Khanna traces his own extensive travels around this planet, basing his thesis that humanity's global connective infrastructure now requires a new approach and a field of study beyond traditional geopolitics and geo-economics. Khanna's model takes us beyond nation states, their jealously guarded sovereignty and borders---always competing for advantage and spheres of influence. This traditional view stems from the famous Treaty of Westphalia, which launched this nation state sovereignty system in 1648.
In his travels Khanna describes in compelling detail the new world of supply-chains, corporate strategies of Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Aramco, Coca-Cola (NYSE:KO), DHL, Google (GOOG, GOOGL), Huawei, Maersk, Shell, Xiaomi, China Mobile, and many others, from Rio Tinto (NYSE:RIO) and BHP Billiton (NYSE:BHP) to Brazil's VALE (NYSE:VALE) and many digital innovators. He shows how these companies interact with cities, trade routes, internet, and communications-based networks, all cooperating in a hyper-globalization beyond conventional analysis.