The world: a brief introduction
The world: a brief introduction
复制标题
世界：简介
DOI：
10.1093/ia/iiab166
复制
发表时间：
2021
影响因子：
4.5
通讯作者：
Anayat Ul lah Mugloo
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
T. A. Mir;Anayat Ul lah Mugloo
在国际关系（IR）这一更广泛的学科中，有数百本书探讨了我们所居住的世界的结构、功能和动态。然而，其中大多数要么过于密集，要么过于理论化，以至于在国际关系专家和学者的社区之外无法阅读。因此，许多学术界以外的人认为这些作品难以理解，错过了从个人和集体的角度把握重要问题所带来的好处。为了帮助非专业人士克服现有文献中的这一缺点，理查德·哈斯（Richard Haass）提供了一个优秀的实用指南，以易于理解的散文和大胆的风格撰写。《世界：一个简短的介绍》对于那些寻求掌握世界政治基础知识的人来说肯定是一部权威性的著作。一开始，它就大胆地承诺，任何背景的读者都将通过阅读本书而成为“全球文学家”（第17页）。事实上，这是对现有文献的一个受欢迎的贡献，并将加深读者对我们时代一些激烈辩论的全球问题的理解。这本书由四个部分组成。每一部分都涉及一个特定的主题、思想或制度。第一部分涵盖了从三十年战争到冷战结束再到当今时代的基本历史。第二部分涉及世界六个重要地区：南亚、中东、非洲、欧洲、东亚和太平洋以及美洲。作者带领读者了解每个地区动荡的历史、政治及其地缘政治意义。这本书的主要亮点是哈斯在冗长的第三部分中对当代全球挑战以及如何通过多边方式解决这些挑战的令人耳目一新的看法。包括美国在内的任何国家都无法单枪匹马地应对任何全球性问题--COVID-19已经毫无疑问地证明了这一点。这一大流行病所构成的挑战，以及本书所述的其他同样棘手的挑战，其程度之大，任何国家或地区都无法单独应对。此外，全球化现象以各种方式加剧了这些问题。他认为，这些问题可能导致混乱或稳定，这取决于如何解决这些问题（第158页）。然而，他也对全球化解决其产生的问题的力量感到乐观。持续的大流行病和其他全球性挑战揭示了我们在这个世界上相互依赖的真实程度。另一方面，它也以令人痛苦的程度暴露了我们全球化和相互关联的世界的矛盾。虽然它的某些方面可能加剧了这些政治的严重性，
There are hundreds of books in the broader discipline of International Relations (IR) exploring the structure, functioning and dynamics of the world we inhabit. However, most of them are either too dense or too theoretical to be read outside the community of experts and scholars of IR. As a result, many people outside academia, who find these works incomprehensible, miss out on the benefits that come from having a good grasp of the issues that matter, both individually and collectively. To help non-experts contend with this shortcoming in the existing literature, Richard Haass delivers an excellent practical guide, written in easily understandable prose and bold style. The world: a brief introduction will certainly be a definitive work for those seeking to master the basics of world politics. At the outset, it makes the bold promise that readers of any background will become ‘globally literate’(p. xvii) by working through the book. Indeed, it is a welcome contribution to the available literature and will deepen readers’ understanding of some hotly debated global issues of our times. The book is neatly structured in four parts. Each part deals with a particular subject, idea or institution. The first part covers essential history from the Thirty Years War to the end of the Cold War and through to the current era. The second part covers six important regions of the world: South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Europe, east Asia and the Pacific, and the Americas. The author takes readers through each region’s tumultuous history, politics and its geopolitical significance. The major highlight of the book is Haass’s refreshing take in the lengthy third part on contemporary global challenges and how to resolve them multilaterally. No single country, including the United States, can deal with any global problem single-handed—as COVID-19 has proved beyond any doubt. The extent of the challenges posed by the pandemic, and other equally intractable ones dealt with in the book, is too great for any country or region to handle alone. Furthermore, the phenomenon of globalization has exacerbated these problems in myriad ways. He argues that these issues can cause chaos or stability depending on how they are addressed (p. 158). However, he also sounds optimistic about the power of globalization to address the very problems it has generated. The continuing pandemic and other global challenges have revealed the true extent to which we rely on one another to live in this world. On the other hand, it has also laid bare, to an excruciating degree, the contradictions of our globalized and interconnected world. While some of its aspects may have intensified the severity of these polit-