The Coming Storm: Power, Conflict, and Warnings from History

A Foreign Policy most anticipated book of the year

From a renowned Yale historian comes a chilling look at the looming threat of the next Great Power warand the urgent interventions necessary to avoid it in the twenty-first century.

The vast majority of people alive today have come of age in a world of remarkable stability, presided over by either one or two Superpowers. This is not to say the world has been peaceful; but it has, to a great extent, been predictable. As an increasing number of Great Powers jostle for regional supremacy, as well as competitive advantage in nuclear technology, artificial intelligence, space exploration, and trade, our world has become more fragile, unpredictable--and combustible. The outbreak of global war among today’s Great Powers seems increasingly likely. Such war, as Odd Arne Westad powerfully argues in this urgent book, would be of a magnitude and devastation never before seen.

To understand the threats that face us in this complex new terrain, we must look to the lessons of the past, and especially the late nineteenth and early twentieth century--a time when Great Powers clashed and sought regional dominance, nationalism and populism were on the rise, and many felt that globalization had failed them; a time when tariffs increased, immigration and terrorism were among the biggest issues of the day, and a growing number of people blamed the citizens of other countries for their problems. A time, in other words, that carries eerie parallels with our own.

Odd Arne Westad is the Elihu Professor of History and Global Affairs at Yale University. He is a scholar of modern international and global history, with a specialization in the history of eastern Asia since the 18th century. Westad is the author of The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times, recipient of the Bancroft Prize, and Restless Empire: China and the World since 1750, recipient of the Asia Society book award. He lives in New Haven, Connecticut.