The Next 100 Years

A Forecast for the 21st Century

By: George Friedman

Narrated by: William Hughes

Length: 9 hrs and 41 mins

Publisher's summary

George Friedman, founder of Stratfor, has become a leading expert in geopolitical forecasting, sought after for his thoughtful assessments of current trends and near-future events.

In The Next 100 Years, Friedman turns his eye on the future. Drawing on a profound understanding of history and geopolitical patterns dating back to the Roman Empire, he shows that we are now, for the first time in half a millennium, experiencing the dawn of a new historical cycle.

©2009 George Friedman (P)2009 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Critic reviews

"A unique combination of cold-eyed realism and boldly confident fortune-telling....Whether all of the visions in Friedman's crystal ball actually materialize, they certainly make for engrossing entertainment." ( Publishers Weekly)

Worthwhile reading but not a must.

I was super excited to read this book however towards the end it became very much conjecture. It feels like George is obsessed with the US and he doesn't stop talking about them he makes out the US is inflamable. Seeing as this book was written in 2008 there are many things that haven't happened and look way of. Turkey are struggling with a broken Lira, Russia are certainly not a failing power and China are still in growth mode. I do agree with some of his points but he focuses too much on the G7 and doesn't talk about anyone else.

He also never took into account climate change and the environment which will cause massive devasation the world over I think if you're going to try and take on 100 year's in the future you should have multiple volumes not try and tackle everything on.

all in all 4/5

Engaging Forecast of the Geo-political Future

Mr. Friedman writes an engaging forecast of the future based on recent and current events as they intertwine with technology and the tech advances that will change our geopolitical environment over the next 100 years. He proposes a case well worth pondering.

Insightful and Unexpected

I enjoyed this book. Some of the predictions may not have aged well (hence the 4 stars) but I thought the analysis was refreshing, sound, and thorough.

Relevance and logic matter

When narrating the practices and thoughts of several key entities, replacing them with counterparts from another geographically similar countries reveals this book somewhat accurate even in the year 2023

Are we seeing thos playout?

Friedman offers us a prognostication of the future 100 years. His fortunetelling is based upon geopolitical factors rather than hocus-pokus or astrogeology. He offers very sound reasons for his thinking the future history lines. Given that this book was published in 2010 and only four years into it, we already see some seeds of truth. Four years is only 1/25 of the span but at least he is off to a great start. Given this a listen, it will make you think -- especially about the middle east and the far east. I give it a thumbs up.

Reasoned, thought-provoking analysis

Friedman certainly knows his subject. As the founder of StratFor, he has access to incredible information from around the world, and years of experience piecing together how that information shapes the world we live in today. This book is the summation of that analysis extended to the next hundred years.

While one may not reach the same conclusions (e.g., China being less of a world leader than, say, Poland), you are sure to be challenged to think about his predictions...and perhaps alter your own! I was particularly taken by his discussion of the ascendancy of Mexico, having long thought that Mexico has unrealized potential (increasing education levels, for example).

I strongly recommend the book to anyone interested in what the next 30, 50 and 100 years may look like.

Insightful

Any additional comments?

An extremely interesting work. Very well written and well read. A brilliant analysis.

Pretty good

Overall, it was a good book. My one caveat about this book is that the author forecasts the decline/collapse of Russia and China without really going into great detail why he thinks that. Of course, both countries could collapse due to their internal instability and set the stage for a rising Japan, Turkey, and Poland making moves on the Grand Chessboard while the US is the offshore balancer. That is certainly very interesting to think about.

The thing people have to understand is that the farther we look into the future, the more speculative it gets, and the more abstract it gets. I do like how the author uses impartial, unsentimental geopolitical forecasting to frame his thoughts about what could happen. Of course, he could be wrong about many things, and he acknowledges that, but his aim is to give the reader a feel of what is to come in the 21st century. In that sense, I think the author did a good job. A good.

Frightening. Very Frightening.

If you could sum up The Next 100 Years in three words, what would they be?

Should have of his predictions come true, the world will be a drastically different place. I hope Friedman is wrong, very wrong.

What did you like best about this story?

The possibility that it all may come true.

What does William Hughes bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Hughes brings a voice of believability that a reader wouldn't otherwise get if they were reading the book.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The future!

Interesting Read

Some ideas in this book might seem obviously far-fetched, but the general premise still seems to remain engaging, even riveting. The world does change in some fundamental aspects, but the people essentially do not so the historical mistakes will reproduce themselves periodically and then a pattern emerges according to which forecasts and predictions can be more or less accurately made. The narrator is also not hard to follow, but to understand the details of these developments one does need to concentrate on some essential numbers and fictional statistical data, thus best when read at intervals in that you make sure you take all the time you need to think and focus and mull over. All in all, this is an essential topic of our day and one we can not afford to live without thinking about.