The Next Global Stage Challenges and Opportunities in Our Borderless World

Introduction

Ideas do not emerge perfectly formed. They are awkward amalgams of experience, insight, hopes, and inspiration. They arrive on stage blinking under the bright lights, hesitant, unsure as to the audience's likely reaction. They evolve and develop, alert to changing reactions and circumstances.

I have been rehearsing the arguments that form the backbone of The Next Global Stage for more than two decades. My previous books, including The Borderless World and The Invisible Continent, examined many of the issues I am still exploring. Ideas, as I say, do not emerge in a state of perfection.

In its genesis, The Next Global Stage has been shaped by two forces.

First, it bears witness to changing circumstances. Over the last two decades, the ...