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Flashpoints
- The Emerging Crisis in Europe
- Narrated by: Bruce Turk, George Friedman
- Length: 11 hrs and 41 mins
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Publisher's summary
A major new book by New York Times best-selling author and geopolitical forecaster George Friedman (The Next 100 Years, The Next Decade) with a bold thesis about coming conflict in the world, this provocative work examines the geopolitical flashpoints - particularly in Europe - in which imminent future conflicts are brewing.
George Friedman has forecasted the coming trends (politics, technology, population, and culture) of the next century in The Next 100 Years, and focused his predictions on the coming ten years in The Next Decade. Now, in Flashpoints, Friedman zooms in on the region that has, for 500 years, been the cultural hotbed of the world - Europe - and examines the most basic and fascinating building block of the region: culture. Analyzing the fault lines that have existed for centuries - and which have led to two world wars and dozens more conflicts - Friedman walks us through the "flashpoints" that are still smoldering beneath the surface and are on course to erupt again.
In Flashpoints, George Friedman begins with a fascinating history of the events leading up to the horrific wars that nearly tore apart Western civilization - killing over 100 million people on the "civilized" European continent. Modern-day Europe, and the formation of the European Union, were designed to minimize the built-in geopolitical tensions that led to catastrophic war, but as Friedman shows with a mix of history and cultural analysis, those plans have failed. "Flashpoints" are now simmering as dangerously as in the early twentieth century. Zeroing in on half a dozen locations, borderlands, and cultural dynamics, George Friedman does what few historians can - he explains precisely how certain trends are unstoppable, and what the future holds... both in terms of conflict and also opportunity. Flashpoints also explains in riveting detail how events in Europe will affect the rest of the world.
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The signs are everywhere. China unilaterally claims the entire South China Sea as sovereign territory, then builds artificial islands to bolster its claim. It suddenly activates an air defense identification zone over the East China Sea, and threatens to down any aircraft that does not report its position. It builds roads into Indian territory, then redraws the maps to show that it is actually Chinese territory. The People's Republic under President Xi Jinping is quickly becoming The Bully of Asia.
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Eye opening, up to date
- By Silomi on 01-01-19
By: Steven W. Mosher
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Someone Has to Say It
- The Hidden History of How America Was Lost
- By: Tom Kawczynski
- Narrated by: Jeff Winston
- Length: 5 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
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Starting at the turn of the last century, this book lays out systematically how Americans have lost control of our government, of our civil society, of our schools, of our companies, and in many cases, even our families.
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Great and inspiring book
- By K. E. Davila on 07-09-20
By: Tom Kawczynski
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Empires of Trust
- How Rome Built - and America Is Building - a New World
- By: Thomas F. Madden
- Narrated by: Richard Poe
- Length: 12 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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In Empires of Trust, Professor Thomas F. Madden explores surprising parallels between the Roman and American republics. By making friends of enemies and demonstrating a commitment to fairness, the two republics - both "reluctant" yet unquestioned super-powers - built empires based on trust. Madden also includes vital lessons from the Roman Republic's 100-year struggle with "terrorism."
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Bork, Reagan, and Honest of Rome
- By Nelson Alexander on 12-20-08
By: Thomas F. Madden
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Catch-67
- The Left, the Right, and the Legacy of the Six-Day War
- By: Micah Goodman, Eylon Levy - translator
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 5 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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Since the Six-Day War, Israelis have been entrenched in a national debate over whether to keep the land they conquered or to return some, if not all, of the territories to Palestinians. In a balanced and insightful analysis, Micah Goodman deftly sheds light on the ideas that have shaped Israelis' thinking on both sides of the debate about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Contrary to opinions that dominate the discussion, he discovers that the paradox of Israeli political discourse is that both sides are right in what they affirm - and wrong in what they deny.
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Very good book!
- By Kindle Customer on 12-11-18
By: Micah Goodman, and others
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The Cold War
- A World History
- By: Odd Arne Westad
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 22 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
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In The Cold War, Odd Arne Westad offers a new perspective on a century when a superpower rivalry and an ideological war transformed every corner of our globe. We traditionally think of the Cold War as a post-World War II diplomatic and military conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. But in this major new work, Westad argues that the conflict must be understood as a global ideological confrontation with roots in the industrial revolution and with continuing implications for the world today.
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A lenghy treatise on the Cold War
- By Donald Hill on 11-21-17
By: Odd Arne Westad
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Fire in the Lake
- By: Frances FitzGerald
- Narrated by: Jeff Bottoms
- Length: 22 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
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This magisterial work, based on Frances FitzGerald's many years of research and travels, takes us inside the history of Vietnam - the traditional, ancestor-worshiping villages, the conflicts between Communists and anti-Communists, Catholics and Buddhists, generals and monks, the disruption created by French colonialism, and America's ill-fated intervention - and reveals the country as seen through Vietnamese eyes. Originally published in 1972, Fire in the Lake was the first history of Vietnam written by an American, and subsequently won the Pulitzer Prize.
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American Hubris; Vietnamese Misery
- By gunnerThrax on 01-24-21
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America in Retreat
- The New Isolationism and the Coming Global Disorder
- By: Bret Stephens
- Narrated by: Bret Stephens, Sean Pratt
- Length: 9 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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America in Retreat identifies a profound crisis on the global horizon. As Americans seek to withdraw from the world to tend to domestic problems, America’s adversaries spy opportunity. Vladimir Putin's ambitions to restore the glory of the czarist empire go effectively unchecked, as do China's attempts to expand its maritime claims in the South China Sea, as do Iran's efforts to develop nuclear capabilities.
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The Burden of American Exceptionalism
- By Harry Paget on 08-15-15
By: Bret Stephens
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On Grand Strategy
- By: John Lewis Gaddis
- Narrated by: Mike Chamberlain
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
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For over 20 years, a select group of Yale undergraduates has been admitted into the year-long "Grand Strategy" seminar team-taught by John Lewis Gaddis and Paul Kennedy. Its purpose: to provide a grounding in strategic decision-making in the face of crisis to prepare future American leaders for important work. Now, John Lewis Gaddis has transposed the experience of that course into a wonderfully succinct, lucid and inspirational book, a view from the commanding heights of statesmanship across the landscape of world history from the ancient Greeks to Lincoln, and beyond.
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Interesting, but fails to offer real lessons.
- By Zack on 07-04-18
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Destined for War
- Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?
- By: Graham Allison
- Narrated by: Richard Ferrone
- Length: 12 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
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War with China is much more likely than anyone thinks. When Athens went to war with Sparta some 2,500 years ago, the Greek historian Thucydides identified one simple cause: A rising power threatened to displace a ruling one. As the eminent Harvard scholar Graham Allison explains, in the past 500 years, great powers have found themselves in "Thucydides's Trap" 16 times. In 12 of the 16, the results have been catastrophic.
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Balances, Counter-Balances and Traps
- By Joyce U. Olewe on 10-09-17
By: Graham Allison
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How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam Is Dying Too)
- By: David Goldman
- Narrated by: Tom Weiner
- Length: 8 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Past and present civilizations failed and fail for many reasons, but the number-one predictor of a civilization’s survival is its sense of religion—or lack thereof. So argues David Goldman in How Civilizations Die (and Why Islam Is Dying Too). The strength of a civilization’s religion affects its purpose, its fertility rate, and ultimately, its fate, says Goldman—who then argues that, contrary to popular belief, Islamic countries are in the last throes of death while Christian America is in a position to flourish.
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Pseudointellectual Clickbait
- By Sam on 12-22-20
By: David Goldman
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Everything Under the Heavens
- How the Past Helps Shape China's Push for Global Power
- By: Howard W. French
- Narrated by: Nicholas Hormann
- Length: 11 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
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For many years after its reform and opening in 1978, China maintained an attitude of false modesty about its ambitions. That role, reports Howard French, has been set aside. China has asserted its place among the global heavyweights, revealing its plans for pan-Asian dominance by building its navy, increasing territorial claims to areas like the South China Sea, and diplomatically bullying smaller players.
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Unique Concept
- By John on 02-24-20
By: Howard W. French
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In this major statement, the renowned international-relations scholar John Mearsheimer argues that liberal hegemony, the foreign policy pursued by the United States since the Cold War ended, is doomed to fail. It makes far more sense, he maintains, for Washington to adopt a more restrained foreign policy based on a sound understanding of how nationalism and realism constrain great powers abroad.
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Humans are venturing up and out, and we’re taking our competitive spirit with us. Soon, what happens in space will shape human history as much the mountains, rivers, and seas have impacted civilizations around the world. It’s no coincidence that Russia, China, and the USA are leading the way. The next fifty years will change the face of global politics and the world order as we know it. In this gripping work, bestselling author Tim Marshall navigates the new geopolitical landscape to show how we got here and where we’re heading.
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Incredibly entertaining
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What listeners say about Flashpoints
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- John
- 02-21-15
Important Reading: Old Grievances Do Not Go Away
This is an important book for anyone interested in contemporary geopolitics. Friedman takes us on a quick tour of European history which focuses on the rise of Germany three times: As an economic and military power leading to World War I, as a military power under Hitler, and as the greatest post-war economic power. Now being a rich, but militarily weak, country, Friedman explains the many challenges that Germany faces for itself, and that it creates for the rest of Europe. His discussion also chronicles the reemergence of Russia, and its need to move its "buffer" to the west, having been re-positioned far to the east after the collapse of the Soviet Union. Friedman also weighs in on the enigma of France and how it is neither really a northern European economic power or a weak southern European country, but a curious mixture of both. And, of course, Great Britain's role is analyzed. No longer a world power, Britain needs Europe and keeps a watchful eye on it, but does not really want to commit to the European Union. Friedman's most incisive discussion, however, involves borderlands across the quilt of many nations that form Europe. Some borderlands are peaceful and will likely remain that way, while others--most notably Ukraine--form the flashpoint for future conflicts. Friedman's main point is that the contention that the European Union ushered in an age of prosperity for all that made conflict and war a thing of the past is simply not true. Very thought provoking. I may listen again.
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16 people found this helpful
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- Luke
- 10-10-15
Some great insights waterlogged by baseless speculation
Some great insights in this book, but George makes a number of leaps to baseless conclusions. He tries to fill the gaps with personal anecdote but this fails to prop up a chicken little argument. In the end you feel like you've had a long conversation with your smart but a little bit melodramatic uncle.
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8 people found this helpful
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- Kyle
- 09-02-15
very interesting & informative!
I had hesitations initially about being bored. did not happen! very informative and very interesting. highly recommend to any American looking for insight into European history.
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4 people found this helpful
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- DS
- 02-05-15
SERIOUSLY GOOD READ
From day one the Euro was a deeply flawed currency (one currency with 13+ different fiscal policies.... really?) and the financial crisis of 2008-9, and Europe's inability to cope with differing needs, led to +25% unemployment in the weaker economies, which is resulting in the rise of far right political parties and..... George Friedman and his company Stratfor have been advising multi-national corporations for years and this book is for all of us. Great food for thought. Concise political history, well reasoned speculation on probable political reactions and insightful analysis of social dynamics make this book a must read. I can't recommend it strongly enough.
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4 people found this helpful
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- Computer Nut
- 09-12-15
Must better than what I expected
Any additional comments?
The thoroughness of the writer's dig into history was impressive. I learned so much from this book and yearn to determine what else he wrote that comes close to this book in terms of quality and interest.
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- peter
- 08-10-15
Detached from reality
It already starts on the wrong foot: The EU was created to never have war in europe again.
No the EU was created to have a war again. That is why they steal money from some subjects and give it to the rulers of some other subjects. Of course this creates hate.
Just another author who does not see the difference between rulers and ruled in a nation. He has nations 'wanting' things and 'fearing' other nations. News: nations do not have feelings. A country is just a tax farm. You can not say that the rulers and the ruled 'want' something. They want different things.
He states that trade might draw people closer together and prevent war, but can also cause war as 'nations try to get the upper hand over other nations'. He never read the wise words of Goering after WWII:
"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
Rulers want to go to war. Governments are a monopoly on violence. Their language is violence.The problem is not difference in cultures. It is the approval of a bunch of people to initiate force. They will always run up debts and create crisis so they have more power in the hands of fever people.
Friedman sees nationalism as the problem, and a new world order or one government as a solution. More power in the hands of fever and fever people, is not a solution. It is a recepy for disaster.
So new crisis in europe: yes, but the reasoning behind it is all false.
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- Amazon Customer
- 06-22-16
A Pessimist & Narrow View
If you could sum up Flashpoints in three words, what would they be?
Historic, Europe, Pessimistic
Would you recommend Flashpoints to your friends? Why or why not?
Yes, it has some good accounts of European history.
No, it disregards technological advancements and has, in my view/hope, little predictive power.
If you could give Flashpoints a new subtitle, what would it be?
Assuming things never change...
Any additional comments?
Disclaimer, I am European (though not German) and, in contrast to the author, generally quite optimistic. While I try to stay objective, it is unavoidable that these facts influence my disagreement with some of the claims that Mr. Friedman makes.
First, let me start out by saying that I really enjoyed parts of the book. It seems to be a through analysis of history and geopolitics in and around Europe. I enjoyed Mr. Firedman's analysis of why certain nations behaved in a certain way in the last century and in recent history. In particular, his view on geopolitics in the borderlands between 'the peninsula' (the EU) and 'mainland Europe' (Russia) was of interest to me. I think the book helped me in understanding the connections between the war Georgia, the conflict in Ukraine, and the tensions between Russia and the baltic states.
While I enjoyed the historic accounts of Mr. Friedman, I am less convinced of his ability to predict future developments, however. The claims he makes are little more than an extrapolation of past events without taking into account recent developments. They are, as I see it, the result of his general pessimistic and sometimes borderline racist view. If you are also a pessimist, you may agree with him. Personally, I often felt annoyed and, at times, angered by the way he is selling his narrow view as a fact, while completely ignoring recent developments.
In particular, I disagree with his claim that people will always be either a 'victim' or 'victimizers'. Put another way, I think the author believes that there will always be conflict between nations as there is always going to be struggles over lands and resources. In my view, while in the times before the first world war, controlling land was the prime source of riches and power, this has substantially changed in the last century. With the world moving from an industrial age into an age of services, human labor, raw material, and geographical space is just not as important as it once was. With nations moving away from fossil fuels, conflict over energy can be expected to ease off (price parity between coal and solar is expected in 2017!). Lastly, with most countries becoming more and more democractic, the danger of one power greedy ruler starting a war are becoming less. Looking at past wars and deciding that it will always continue like this, is akin to saying that there is no world possible without slaves during the times of abolition, ignoring the fact that new technologies such as steam and gas engines can be a source of 'free labor' that replaces the ones of slaves.
The fact that Mr. Fiedman does not think change is possible is shockingly evident in Chapter 10, where he seems to be saying that there is an innately and unchangeably evil 'madness' in the Germans. In my view, this is plain racist and as such, proof in itself, that racist thoughts can also be found in people living far away from Germany ;-)
In general, Mr. Friedman disregards technological advancements such as the internet and the transformational power of software. It seems that the fact that these developments, in my view, have brought the people of the world closer together and that, maybe as a consequence of this, people seem to be adopting a more global view on things, completely escapes him.
That being said, I really enjoyed many parts of the book. I would, however, only recommend the book to people who can think for themselves and I urge fellow readers to also read other works about the future (try 'Abundance' by Peter Diamandis).
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- Henrik
- 06-13-15
Razor sharp insights into European politics
A mix of anecdotes and stark history lessons. Going through the individual borderlands of Europe, Friedman provides some interesting insight at every turn and twist. He makes the actions and considerations of politicians seem more rational, given the historical context and demographic they are operating in. Recommended to all european politicians.
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- Stephen Goldenberg
- 04-04-15
Most important book I've ever read.
Should be read in high school and in adult book clubs. It explains how the world got where it now is.
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- alchemyiam
- 03-01-19
excellent geopolitical summary for Europe
excellent geopolitical summary for Europe's future with a look to the past included. Several predictions are already coming to pass
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