by PREM SHANKAR JHA

This groundbreaking book offers a new synthesis of political and economic theory thats sheds light on the consequences of rapid industrialisation worldwide. Writing from outside the usual Western perspective, the book challenges many of the usual preconceptions about the impact of globalisation.

'In the early days of the twenty-first century it is difficult to remember the optimism, not to say triumphalism, that followed the collapse of communism in the rich countries of the North. Where is Fukuyama's "end of history"? Today even the politicians and ideologues of that region heavily qualify their forecasts of a peaceful and liberal future for a world which seems in obvious crisis. Yet the test of a book about the current situation of the globe is not whether it is hopeful or disenchanted, but whether it helps us understand it. Prem Shankar Jha's strikingly intelligent, lucid and troubled book passes this test with flying colours. It is essential reading for the first decade of the third millennium.' Eric Hobsbawm

Unlike most works on globalisation, written in Europe or North America, Prem Shankar Jha writes from India, where the rate of development is at odds with the ?systemic chaos? into which the global economy has been plunging since the 1970s. An observer from a country like India is less likely than those in the rich countries to confuse the generally beneficial effects of industrialisation and techno-scientific progress and the much more problematic consequences of uncontrolled capitalist globalisation, notably the dramatic widening of the per capita income gap between the developed countries and most of the rest, and within almost all countries, rich and poor. Above all, he cannot but be constantly aware that such phrases as ?I am hungry? or ?I have no work? have a profoundly different meaning in countries with a mean per capita GDP of $25,000 from the one they have in one with $500.

It is a position that makes him uniquely placed to understand the problems created by the current phase of capitalist globalisation.

In THE TWILIGHT OF THE NATION STATE he argues that we are living through the fourth time in which capitalism has broken its economic, political and institutional ?container? in the course of a history which he traces back to the middle ages. As in the past, the end of each of its cycles of expansion has seen the destruction of institutions and prolonged conflict between and within states. The violence released by these destructions has tended to increase with the global growth of the 'container'.

This book is intended as a warning that the transition the world is going through will not necessarily end in a new equilibrium ? a new island of peace or golden age. On the contrary the disorder could easily deepen until it dismantles the entire edifice of civilised society. It is therefore imperative for decision-makers to recognise the threat and to take concerted action to evade it. The first step on that road is to abandon belief in the self regulatory capacities of the market and the international political system. Concerted action requires multilateral decision making. The present drift towards unilateralism?towards a global empire backed by military force alone ? therefore poses the most serious threat that the world has ever known.

'A thoughtful, well-documented and passionately argued account.' Giovanni Arrighi, John Hopkins University

Sales: Sage India; Pluto Press UK & USA (distributed by University of Michigan Press);Neri Pozza Italy;
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PREM SHANKAAR JHA, a noted analyst and commentator, is a former editor of and contributor to The Hindu, The Hindustan Times, The Economic Times and The Financial Express, and a former information advisor to the prime minister of India. He is the author of several books including, THE PERILOUS ROAD TO THE MARKET: The Political Economy of Reform in Russia, INDIA AND CHINA, and KASHMIR 1947: The Origins of a Dispute, and a regular columnist with several leading publications.