|
The very foundations of state power are shifting before our
eyes. We are entering a world where the most important
resources are the least tangible; where land is less important than an educated
populace, where stockpiles of goods, capital and labor are less important than
flows; and where developed nations struggle not for political dominance but for
a greater share of world output. A new type of nation
is emerging -- the virtual state. As a result, the influential nations of the
coming century will look less like traditional Great Powers and more like Hong
Kong or Singapore: small, with little military power, few natural resources and
little agriculture or manufacturing, but powerful in using managerial, financial
and creative skills to control assets elsewhere. The developed world will be divided
into "head" nations, which create products and manage services, and
"body" nations, which manufacture goods in a new and productive partnership
with head nations, or virtual states. In this world, military conquest will make
little sense: armies can only seize real estate, and real estate does not confer
knowledge or capital. In the United States, management,
services, creativity and expertise have already become more important assets than
bread, steel or factories. With 70% of our Gross Domestic Product coming from
services and only 18% from manufacturing, we stand on the edge of becoming a virtual
state. The Rise of the Virtual State explains
what international relations and commerce will look like in the world of the next
century. Renowned international relations scholar Richard Rosecrance defines how
this world will emerge, how the United States will figure in this new system of
international politics and economics and who are the likely winners and losers
on the coming international scene. Richard Rosecrance
is the author of The Rise of the Trading State and America's Economic
Resurgence. He is Director of the Ronald W. Burkle Center for International
Relations and Professor of Political Science at the University of California,
Los Angeles. |
