The Great Convergence, Mahbubani - B

                   The subtitle of this intriguing book is 'Asia, The West And The Logic Of One World'.  The author is the former U.N. Ambassador from Singapore, currently Dean and Professor at the School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore.  He makes a very compelling case for a world with stronger multilateral institutions.

                   His starting point is that the world has undergone massive change in the last three decades. Death by war and disease has declined significantly. We live in a much more interconnected world than we could have ever imagined and just about everyone in it now strives for the creature comforts that we in the West have always taken for granted.  The rise of a world-wide middle class creates massive economic and environmental challenges. The tasks at hand necessitate global solutions that our existing 19th century nation-states are ill-prepared to manage.  He asserts that the 12% of the world, that is, the West, isn't ready to share responsibility with the rest of the world and consistently undermines the U.N., the  World Health Organization and other international agencies. He cites the Association of Southeast Asian Nations as entity that has succeeded because of a program of extensive multilateral cooperation.  Policy books, by nature, are not 'fun reads', but this is insightful and thought provoking.