Disunited Nations

The Scramble for Power in an Ungoverned World

By: Peter Zeihan

Narrated by: Peter Zeihan, Roy Worley

Length: 16 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's Summary

Should we stop caring about fading regional powers like China, Russia, Germany, and Iran? Will the collapse of international cooperation push France, Turkey, Japan, and Saudi Arabia to the top of international concerns?

Most countries and companies are not prepared for the world Peter Zeihan says we’re already living in. For decades, America’s allies have depended on its might for their economic and physical security. But as a new age of American isolationism dawns, the results will surprise everyone. 

In Disunited Nations, geopolitical strategist Peter Zeihan presents a series of counterintuitive arguments about the future of a world where trade agreements are coming apart and international institutions are losing their power. Germany will decline as the most powerful country in Europe, with France taking its place. Every country should prepare for the collapse of China, not North Korea. We are already seeing, as Zeihan predicts, a shift in outlook on the Middle East: it is no longer Iran that is the region’s most dangerous threat, but Saudi Arabia. 

The world has gotten so accustomed to the “normal” of an American-dominated order that we have all forgotten the historical norm: several smaller, competing powers and economic systems throughout Europe and Asia. America isn’t the only nation stepping back from the international system. From Brazil to Great Britain to Russia, leaders are deciding that even if plenty of countries lose in the growing disunited chaos, their nations will benefit. The world isn’t falling apart - it’s being pushed apart. The countries and businesses prepared for this new every-country-for-itself ethic are those that will prevail; those shackled to the status quo will find themselves lost in the new world disorder. 

Smart, interesting, and essential listening, Disunited Nations is a sure-to-be-controversial guidebook that analyzes the emerging shifts and resulting problems that will arise in the next two decades. We are entering a period of chaos, and no political or corporate leader can ignore Zeihan’s insights or his message if they want to survive and thrive in this uncertain new time.

©2020 Peter Zeihan (P)2020 HarperCollins Publishers

Wow!

I've listened to all of Peter's books, and this one is absolutely on point. I listened during the COVID-19 shelter in place order in Southern California, and the themes in this book are playing out in real time on the news. Highly recommended!

brilliant geopolitical primer re the future

I have authored 3 financial education books. I have read every book both Peter Zeihan and his colleague Dr George Friedman have written and this is my favorite since it focuses on the post 2020 instability that's going to manifest global relationships going forward as America sheds it's foreign policy and alliances based upon the strategic rationale of the WW2 era Bretton Woods agreement.

This is a book fundamentally disruptive to conventional geopolitical strategic wisdom and the doom and gloom of the China vs USA stand off. Once you get your head around the irrefutable and novel arguments and the data from which Peter's conclusions are based you inevitably adopt most of Peter's inescapable geopolitical conclusions in the post 2020 world.

Viewed from this perspective... outsized personalities not with standing ...the Trump presidency 's foreign policy reset is not an aberration but an inevitable, even overdue, US recalibration to 2020 realities from the previous 1945 realities.

Peter uses terse prose and keeps the listener enthralled with his quick main street focused analysis and the implications. The author provides the irrefutable data to make the logical conclusions as to why global instability will be a net asset to the United States and why most countries will face strong headwinds. After 7 decades of many US allies and trading partners relying on America's under appreciated generosity maintaining the global order at America's cost, the coming USA reset will be quite unpleasant for most countries that are net losers and maybe that's why they're in such denial.

One acquires a clear understanding of why America's free trade deals since World War II were so strongly biased in favor of the economic development of allies. It was a bribe to build an alliance to confront the Soviet Union at America's expense and it created the world as we know it in 2020. With the American electorate voting for a US president in 2016 whose appeal was repudiating those costly trade deals and alliances that have outlived their geopolitical relevance by 30 years... inevitable change from America is in the air.

30 years after the demise of the Soviet Union and the raison d'être of the American financed global order.... America's self-interest is being updated to post 2020 realities. It would appear that America's best days are ahead of her. For a few select allies like Canada, Mexico, the UK Japan and South Korea the USA foreign policy reset will not be destabilizing.

Peter clearly points out...China's success was in large part a result of the geopolitical strategy of the United States and keeping the sea lanes open compliments of the US Navy. Without these 2 US paid for realities China's future is far more bleak than you could believe possible.The 7 reasons why China, as we know it, is not sustainable is made crystal clear. Anyone doing their manufacturing, or dependent upon a supply chain based in China would be a fool not to heed the insight of this book re China's inevitable implosion.

The ultimate irony is that the government of the People's Republic of China has sold China on the myth that China's success is the result of the Chinese government's "wise and adroit stewardship of China's economy". This gets a jaw dropping reality check from the author.

As a 3X author (ProfitsUSA.com being my 3rd book) on a professional level I applaud the author's rare skill at taking complex, ethereal and technical geopolitical matters and making them accessible to Main Street.

To properly grasp the magnitude of the authors impact in writing this insightful and seminal book, it is best to think of Peter Zeihan as having an Elon Musk sized stature just in a different field.... geopolitics. High praise indeed but one I believe that is justified given the implication of millions of people acquiring the wisdom of Peter's GeoPolitical insights and adjusting their business plans accordingly.

I use that Elon analogy also because like Elon Musk, Peter does a better job at the arduous research and development than anyone else...albeit Elon does it for rockets and EV cars and Peter does it for geopolitical analysis. When the results of their arduous R&D process manifests itself in a new product ...in Peters case a book, as opposed to a Tesla car or SpaceX rocket, the competition is so far behind an oft used Elon Musk phrase ... "a difference of an order of magnitude" comes to mind. Read or listen to this book and you be the judge. This book rocks and it's visionary author as well.

This book should be required reading for the United States Senate, public policy experts, national journalists and defense analysts. This is not some academic book.... it is meant to be assimilated and acted on by business people that use the supply chain in China and Europe. Since a salient seminal insight shared by readers or listeners of this book with their friends, family and colleagues multiples its influence ...please take advantage of Audibles extremely generous offer to gift this book for free. After you read this book you'll be prompted to share it and it is free for anybody that has not used audible before.

3 in 1: fantasy, fairy tale, wishful thinking

Dr. Peter Zeihan presents his wishful thinking wrapped in colorful fantasy story instead of an attempt to explain the root cause of current economic and financial imbalances accumulated over the years and ways to fix them. According to him all problems will miraculously resolve themselves while all adversaries and even allies are starving or perishing of old age. Somehow great American rivers, internal waterways and aircraft carriers are going to bring relief to budget deficits, national debt and need to bailout economy at taxpayers expense every 10 to 15 years. I would read his stories to kids as fairy tails, if not for his accounts of future mass starvation and bloody wars which border with thoughts of psychopath. As if these things have never happened under so-called (by P. Zeihan) American order. Complete waste of time and money. Unlike story, narration is impeccable.

All idiots except USA, according to author.

This garbage made some sense early on, but gradually shifted to uninhibited U.S cheerleading. Author suggests that no other nation is so smart, rich and well led. Believe that?, And I will sell you the Brooklyn bridge. Aiuthor presents his own sociopathic vision where the USA overwhelms the entire planet to get rich and dominates all other entities. His eagerly overoptimistic predictions leeaves out all important factors except economic greed. No recognition of our last decades of abysmal leadership and and that no one is concerned with anything but getting rich and starving the rest of the world and that we have access to anyone competent enough to even do that. A true alt right world view..

Pro America Propaganda

This is not an academic book by any measure. There are so many things wrong here, suffice to say I could tell the level of the authors thinking after he dismissed AI as not being of any importance whatsoever. Save your audible credit, and read Noam Chomsky instead.

Another Home Run

Peter Zeihan has capped off his trilogy with a fantastic volume in Disunited Nations. From the emotional prologue describing his ultimately transformative friendship with Matt to his on point descriptions of world history and current geopolitics, you'll be hooked. In addition, Roy Worley is fantastic with his narration providing a lively and engrossing candor to what many would consider dry fact and analysis. Worley, with all due respect to the Author, is the best narrator in Zeihan's trilogy.

A can't miss volume for all armchair historians, touching on the new players to come in the disorder predicted by Zeihan with the best narration in the trilogy. Disunited Nations is fantastic and I'm already looking forward to listening to it a second time

An interesting read that ultimately lacks humility

This book would have been better described as “factors that may have more of an effect on the world’s geopolitical future than you might think.”

The book fails in my view because the author writes with a determinism that suggests omniscience - claiming total expertise on every region, subregion and nation of the world.

I can guarantee that the forecasts in this book will be inaccurate for two reasons:
1) Zeihan plays a logical bait and switch - conflating a *reduction* of US interest / involvement outside of the Western Hemisphere with complete and near-immediate abandonment. Similar errors in logic pervade nearly every chapter of the book: inflections in impulses do not mean those impulses will go all the way to their logical ends.
2) Zeihan fails to consider that factors that are not yet seen / easily predictable can have a radical impact on the trajectory of global affairs. Year-to-year, these may be few in number. But over time, they have a cumulative effect that can overwhelm the prevailing trends that Zeihan is predicting.

All that said, the author should be commended for trying to do something that is truly difficult, which is to identify important trends that will be interrelated - particularly the United States’ lack of enduring interests in the Middle East and China’s inability to project the power needed to secure all the resources it needs to power its economy.

Engaging and well reasoned

If you’ve seen any of the hour long videos of Zeihan’s lectures, consider this one of those, but with 15 times the material, with time for all the points that he may have to gloss over on any given presentation.

The author lives in a world of his own.

He has all kind of predictions that dont make any sense... Lets see:
In the future Turkey, a non nuclear mini power will occupy russian lands starting with Crimeea naval base. Russia , the largest nuclear arsenal on earth, a country twice the size of Turkey by population and GDP will simply accept that. Right?

Then Turkey will also occupy Greece, a NATO member and an EU member. Those two entities would simply accept it. Right?

Not all info is worthless, but I dont get how he gets to these ideas...

Zeihan really needs to go the extra mile

Content of this book was great and typical Zeihan. However, I realized why Absent was such a let down after listening to Disunited. For me it all comes back to how riveting Accidental was, my favorite book ever. Accidental was superb because Zeihan narrated it! Disunited was just boring without Zeihan's voice and inflections. Zeihan needs to put more effort into the delivery of his vision of future and read the damn book to his fan base. Hope you see this review Peter and redo Disunited. I'll buy it again. It should be noted this is my first ever review on Audible after over a dozen years.

A wishful fantasy

The author’s obvious pride in the United States being a global superpower seems to blind him to some of the nuances of the new multipolar system. There is real naivety and downright ignorance regarding many of the world’s major powers. Many of the chapters took the reader on an extended exploration of 18th and 19th century geography rather than the future of world geopolitics. In summary, disappointing.

A fairy story for complacent americans

The only thing the author seems to get right is coming convulsions. Part of the book is almost quaintly 18th century documenting river flows and arable land like some junior colonialist functionary but the book stays in the 18th century comparing military might amongst nuclear armed states as if they were just as likely to fight as before. it has cultural and religious blindspots which may be a result of some things being unsayable in pc America but the biggest crime of all is failing to see the danger for the USA itself, racial tensions, crippling debt and other issues are unlikely to leave it unscathed and may break it into smaller pieces. Perhaps it will be the first empire to collapse and prosper but somehow I doubt it.

Fascinating and eye opening

A compelling and somewhat chilling view of the unsettled world we now live in. Well explained and argued with a global appreciation of the options facing the countries with the most influence on the world’s future. It makes one appreciate how good we have had over the last 50 years.

Absolute nonsense. Do not buy this book it’s an absolute travesty that someone published it!

This guy clearly lives in a cave and hasn’t read recently. It’s USA biased absolute horse shit! I’ve never read anything this bad. Do not buy this this book or audio.

Superb

The fate of nations is written on their coastlines, rivers, soils, mountains and peoples.

The author has already cast the runes and scrutinised the entrails. Here you can read the history of the future.

a good and pertinent analysis

a good and pertinent analysis of the current global situation. a good listen which I highly recommend.

eye opening

once again food for thought... thank you Mr Zeihan all good points giving you a head start .

Engaging and Intense

The narrator for this book is excellent. He makes it effortless to keep engaged and speaks with a conviction as if he wrote the book himself.

I’ve listened to one of Zeihan’s books before and this was a great follow on. The content was fresh and even more in-depth. The arguments he makes are very compelling. I enjoy the light-hearted tone he uses and his satirical approach to geopolitics makes him a stand out personality in the field of geopolitics. I’ve found myself re-listening to my favourite chapters a few times now.

I look forward to more books to come!

Epic. A geopolitical master class!

should be required reading / listening for anyone interested in geopolitics, the past and the future.

optimistic

While the prognostications are compelling, I really hope things don't progress as quickly as predicted.
Also I can't help but feel that the short term impacts on America will be larger than claimed.