The Age of the Unthinkable
Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It
By: Joshua Cooper Ramo
Published: March 23, 2009
Format: Hardcover, 288 pages
ISBN: 9780316118088
Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
"As much as we might wish it, our world is not becoming more stable or easier to comprehend. We are entering, in short, a revolutionary age," writes Managing Director at Kissinger Associates, Joshua Cooper Ramo, in his brilliant and worldview altering book The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It. The author takes the reader on a globe trotting adventure, from the turbulent Middle East to the world of Wall Street high finance, where generally accepted ideas of how the world works are shattered forever.
Joshua Cooper Ramo understands that small events have enormous and unexpected effects far beyond their initial impact. From experiments on the instability of a growing sand pile, and the unpredictable effect of adding one more grain of sand, the author forms a powerful analogy with the the forces at work in the world. Each addition of a single grain of sand to the growing pile increases its instability, but when the avalanche of sand will occur is impossible to forecast. This unpredictability is reflected in asymmetrical Middle East warfare and in individual home foreclosures in the United States. When the avalanche causing event, that changes the familiar worldview takes place, can't be forecast with accuracy despite its certain inevitability.
Joshua Cooper Ramo (photo left) recognizes that the disproportionate effects of small events renders the old school power politics obsolete. The former advantage of superior numbers and technology turned into a liability in the face of an adaptable opponent. Instead of pounding an enemy into submission, the foe changes, adapts to the new environment, and becomes stronger and more resolute. Power politics, as practiced traditionally by Western governments, according to the author, are no longer effective and are indeed counterproductive. The traditional security dilemma of building more arms, resulting in potential enemies also arming, results in increased insecurity. In its place is needed a deeper understanding of national security beyond the simple equation of weaponry.
Joshua Cooper Ramo envisions a world where individuals are empowered to act and think creatively. The failure of Wall Street bankers and of powerful armies to achieve desired results demonstrates clearly the sand pile world at work. Individual actions produce unexpected results far beyond their expected scope. Whether in a village in South Africa where local AIDS patients develop their own treatment programs, a cell in the Gaza where Palestinian guerrillas adapt to Israeli military actions, or a company in Brazil that empowered its workers to create their own jobs and profit centers, the actions of individuals cause unexpected and powerful events to take place. The law of the sand pile is an inability to watch every grain of sand, but that every bit of sand has a profound effect on the whole, works in the emerging world as well.
I very highly recommend the important and idea changing book The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It by Joshua Cooper Ramo, to anyone seeking to understand how individual actions impact the complex worlds of corporations, national economies and global security in unimagined ways. Moving far beyond traditional corporate management, economic, and security theory, the author presents a compelling argument for individual empowerment and action.
Read the paradigm challenging The Age of the Unthinkable: Why the New World Disorder Constantly Surprises Us And What We Can Do About It by Joshua Cooper Ramo, and never look at our revolutionary age and the sand pile world in the same way again. Instead of looking to traditional authorities, for answers and solutions to national and global problems, the revolutionary power to create positive and lasting change is in the hands of the individual.
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