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Real World Order and Why Nations Fail - A Comparative Essay

Introduction

The Real World Order, penned by Max Singer and Aaron Wildavsky, is based on the underlying theme that the world has changed drastically after the cessation of the Cold War. This change is not positive and welcomed in that the world has become more dangerous and the people more inhuman. This same belief is supported by many other foreign-policy specialists. The other book Why Nations Fail, authored by Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson, challenged the inequality between the third world countries and the developed nations and gives the reasons behind the disparity in income, education, health and quality of life (Firebaugh, p. 323). The paper discusses the major themes given in the two books, the arguments that were put forward to support them and the comparison and contrast of the two.

Real World Order

The book The Real World Order tries to bring the world out of the “old thinking” pattern. This is the pattern that has served only to complicate matters. The so-called period after the end of the Cold War which was dubbed as the New World Order by Bush ended in August 2008, when Russia attacked Georgia. Of course, the authors suggest that we may not exaggerate the importance of this war, as the real beginning of a new world order, the de facto started from September 11, 2001. The essence of what happened on August 8 is that one nation attacked another nation because the attacking nation was concerned about the intents of a third nation; America (Holder, p. 109). This scenario is what forces us to start understanding the Real World Order.

The book reveals the conventional wisdom that at the end of each war, there is an expectation that it was the last one. The idea given by the authors is simple and logical in that it is all too human for people to hope for better. In addition, it is universal truth that any war between two nations of two parties is generally won by the powerful coalitions. The old thinking idea is that the winners will continue to work in peace, and the losers will join the process of peace. These considerations guided the Congress of Vienna, the actors, the creators of the UN and NATO. These considerations underlie the statements of George Bush, when he said that the "cold war" is over. However, those who have dreamed of in this way have always been disappointed.

Why Nations Fail

The book aims at unveiling the mystery why some nations are rich and others are poor. They book lays down that the present system in the world is faced with two growing imbalances. One, America is and continues to be the most powerful state so much so that it will be the Empire of Note in 2050. Currently there is not one state which has the strength to overcome the US and become the strongest nation in the world (Acemoglu & Robinson, ...