The first edition of this book was being written when the United States was still an unquestionably dominant power, with its military operating all over the globe, its economy roaring, and its culture setting a tone for the entire world. When it was published, the US financial system collapsed, and the Great Recession was underway. This development hastened the trend that Zakaria marked: the shifting of power from the West to non-Western powers. Zakaria has updated the book to discuss the implications of the financial crisis on powers like China, Brazil, India, and Indonesia, along with how the United States can adjust to a more globalized world in which no one state is dominant.

Zakaria posits a major change in global politics, on par with the great changes of the past half millennia. The first was the rise of Europe (also known as “the West”) as the central region of global politics, introducing technological innovations like industry and capitalism before spreading them around the globe. By the end of the 19th century, the United States achieved a degree of power unlike any other modern state by virtue of its enormous resources, population, and global reach.