Abstract
The events related in this book are the early tremors of a historic global rebalancing. However, it is not governments and multinational corporations but rather thousands of individual Arab and Chinese traders that represent the first tremors of change. It is a change occurring at the grassroots level. The distinction is important. Who notices the activities of an Arab trader in Yiwu or a Chinese trader in Damascus? It isn’t obvious how their activities have a meaningful impact on life in America and Europe. But these traders are symbolic of more powerful tides that are reshaping the global economy. The challenge is in trying to identify the forces at work as the center of gravity starts to shift away from the West toward the East.
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Notes
Niall Ferguson, Colossus (London, 2005), p. 2006.
Niall Ferguson, Colossus (London, 2005), p. 2006.
Robert M. Gates, “Landon Lecture,” A speech at Kansas University, November 26, 2007.
Edward Djerejian, Changing Minds Winning Peace: A New Strategic Direction for Public Diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim World, The Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, (October 1, 2003).
Shafeeq Ghabra and Margreet Arnold, Studying the American Way: An Assessment of American-Style Education in Arab Countries, The Washington Institute for Near East Policy (June, 2007).
Edward Djerejian, Changing Minds Winning Peace: A New Strategic Direction for Public Diplomacy in the Arab and Muslim World, The Advisory Group on Public Diplomacy for the Arab and Muslim World, Washington, October 1, 2003, p. 33.
Johnson, Simon, “The Rise of Sovereign Wealth Funds,” Finance and Development, International Monetary Fund (September, 2007), p. 56.
Tim Weber, “Who’s Afraid of Sovereign Wealth Funds?,” BBC news website, January 24, 2008.
Angus Maddison, The World Economy: Historical Statistics, OECD (Paris, 2003).
Angus Maddison, The World Economy: Historical Statistics, OECD (Paris, 2003).
For more details see, Willem Floor, The Persian Gulf: A Political History of Five Port Cities 1500–1730 (Washington, 2006).
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© 2011 Ben Simpfendorfer
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Simpfendorfer, B. (2011). Implications for the West: A New Center of Gravity. In: The New Silk Road. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230302075_8
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230302075_8
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