Civilization: The West and the Rest

摘要

In his conclusion, Ferguson begins with the caveat that civilizations "are highly complex systems, made up of a very large number of interacting components that are asymmetrically organized." They can appear stable, but go into crisis from "[a] slight perturbation." Ferguson then leads into the current state of affairs in the United States, the impact of China acting as a U.S. creditor, and four obstacles to China continuing to ascend as a world power. He also argues that despite the West no longer monopolizing the "killer apps," they are ahead because they have all the "apps" packaged together. Unfortunately, by starting with the explanation that civilizations are complex systems, Ferguson caveats his own predictions causing the reader to question the relevancy of the entire book.