Publisher's Synopsis
Oct. 26-The big question which should concern all thinking human beings on this planet, is essentially the same as that which was hotly debated in the young American republic as reported in the Federalist Papers, "Is human society capable of an efficient form of selfgovernment?" Only this time it is not a question for just one nation; it concerns all of humanity and the need for a new paradigm in the world order. Tensions in a world plagued by multiple crises seem to be increasing towards a breaking point: the danger of a new-this time systemic-financial crash of the transatlantic financial system, an unprecedented polarization inside the United States around the ongoing coup attempt against the President of the United States, false-flag operations, Goebbelslike deception operations against entire populations, drug epidemics which are a new form of Opium Wars, the global migration crisis, terrorism and Nazism, an increase of centrifugal forces in the European Union, the re-emergence of aggressive, geopolitically motivated efforts to defend an order that no longer exists-just to list some of the challenges. The world is in disorder. In light of such a complex and seemingly completely disunited world, how realistic then is the perspective laid out at the 19th National Congress of the CPC by Chinese President Xi Jinping, where he defined the goal for China to become a "strong, democratic, culturally advanced, harmonious, and beautiful," fully modernized country by the year 2050, and even spoke at some point of the building of a "beautiful world" for all nations to participate in? If one looks at the crises and challenges listed above as unrelated individual problems, one ends up in a "bad infinity," where the solution to many of them seems impossible. But if one recognizes that all of these problems have common threads, in that they are the derivatives of the old paradigm of an epoch going under, one can find the solution by being informed by the principles of the new epoch. There are two "game-changing" topics, which in the near future, create totally opposite pathways for mankind. The first one concerns the monumental battle being fought out now in the United States. The coup attempt against President Trump may be successful and he is driven out of office one way or the other. Or, if the collusion of the heads of intelligence agencies of the Obama administration with the British intelligence services (GCHQ and MI6) in orchestrating "Russiagate" against Trump-to prevent him from realizing his intention to put the relationship between the United States and Russia on a good basis-will lead to the criminal prosecution of the perpetrators. Were the Democrats to win the House of Representatives in the midterm elections, they will try to bury the ongoing investigations in the Congress, and the confrontationist policies we have seen in the sanctions against Russia, the trade war against China, and the recent speech by Vice President Pence, will be escalated instantly. If Trump can consolidate his position, despite the many hawkish tones coming from the United States now, there does exist the potential that he will be able, in the second half of his first term, to improve relations with Russia and return to his initial positive attitude towards China. The second, related game-changing issue is whether we fall into the "Thucydides Trap" or escape it. Let us look at a perspective to overcome the Thucydides Trap, the apparent conflict between the power dominating the world up to now, the United States, and the rising power, China, by defining a solution which goes way beyond the bilateral situation of the two, and which addresses the existential dangers for all nations, thus shifting the level of discussion and thinking to a higher plateau.
