by Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber
(review)
Jean-Jacques Servan-Schreiber (1924 – 2006) was a WWII fighter pilot, the founder of a French newspaper (newsweekly L’Express), politician and publicist.
While his international best-seller Le Défi Américain (“The American Challenge”, 1967) sold 600,000 copies in France and translated into more than 15 languages, alarmed Western Europe about the massive penetration of American capital into the important industries that concerned the future of Western European states, The World Challenge would warn about the danger of the capitalist system if the third world is not given a chance within it.
Therefore, the book outlines the past, present and future of what is called “the new global order” resulting from the price rise of oil (the price of oil remained at a dollar a barrel from the 1900s to the 1960s. In 1981, it was $41 a barrel).
Every drop of oil is worth a drop of blood to nations and peoples.
On that basis, the book takes us from Paris to Bombay, from Tokyo to Riyadh, and from Hamburg to Algiers and gives us an insight into the shift of power in world politics between the early 70s and the 80s, and presents three universes that still make up the truth of our world:
- those who own the world’s wealth set the conditions and meet in the village of Taïf in Arabia.
- the industrial society in the developed countries, which has ceased to be the master of oil and investments and is in the throes of anarchy;
- the misery of the world accumulated from the poverty of millions of hungry and illiterate beings in the midst of which, bosses of the state challenge the West;
The main tool to overcome the lack of balance in which the planet’s population is struggling is seen as the information revolution. However, although the intelligence revolution is within, who wants this? Who wants every man, every woman to be able to find their job and fulfillment? This is the stake of the world challenge.
William Fulbright (Chairman of the US Foreign Affairs Commission) “published a book clearly and convincingly entitled “The Arrogance of Power” to denounce the illusion that America can claim to dominate the world, to regulate through its interventions the problems of all regions, to assumes the responsibility of imposing an international order: “so much conceit and arrogance can only lead to the greatest disappointments and catastrophes.” (The World Challenge)
The book pays particular attention to the political and economic impact of the oil-producing OPEC nations and the challenges presented by the rise of Japan as a major economic power on the global stage.
People believe us, those from Saudi Arabia, to be rich. But we are not really rich. We are selling a non-renewable oil. And what will we be left with? The only wealth is the ability to create.
The World Challenge is a great book about world politics.
Love, Manuela
Originally published on https://goodreads.com
Copyright © 2016-2024 manuela@inalove.world
Image: Pexels
In a Love World 