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| Book Review
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 The Rise of the Virtual State : Wealth and Power in the Coming Century
by Richard N. Rosecrance
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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 populous, where stockpiles of goods, capital and labour are less important than flows; 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 the traditional great powers and more like Hong Kong or Singapore; small, with little military power, few natural resources and little agriculture manufacturing, but powerful in using managerial, financial and creative skills to control assets elsewhere. The developed world be divided in "head" nations, which create products and manage services, and "body" nations, which manufacture goods in a new and productive relationship 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 than assets than, bread, steel or factories. With seventy percent of our gross domestic product coming from services and only eighteen percent 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 Rosencrantz defines how this world will emerge, how the US will figure in this new system of international politics and who are the likely winners and losers on the coming international scene. | |
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