13. pt. I Denouement: World Politics, Systemic Leadership, and Climate Change. 1. Systemic Leadership and Energy: The Argument -- 2. Leadership Long Cycle Framework -- 3. Revising the Framework: Energy and Eurasian History -- pt. II PAST -- 4. Rome as the Pinnacle of the Western Ancient World -- 5. China: The Incomplete Transition -- 6. Netherlands: Not Quite the First Modern Economy and Its Immediate Predecessors -- 7. Britain: The First Modern Industrial Economy: Combining Technology and Energy -- 8. United States: Emulating and Surpassing Britain -- 9. Comparing the Four Main Cases -- pt. III FUTURE -- 10. Energy, Technology, and (Possibly) the Nature of the Next World Economy Upswing -- 11. Fracking, Warming, and Systemic Leadership -- 12. Racing to a Renewable Transition? -- 13. Denouement: World Politics, Systemic Leadership, and Climate Change.
Summary:
In the international political economy of the last two millennia, there tends to be one state leading the world as the foremost producer of energy and new technology. In Racing to the Top, William R. Thompson and Leila Zakhirova argue that the US and China, like previous leading countries, rely on energy transition, or the development of alternative energy, in order to make new technology relatively inexpensive to develop and to fuel. While the US has historically held the lead, its edge in the global energy economy appears to be eroding, and as energy leadership diminishes, so does the country's position in world politics. Thompson and Zakhirova take a long view in order to show what will be necessary for a new power to emerge as the system leader, then map a path forward for energy policy. Informed by a deep knowledge of world history, political economy, and environmental technology, this book is the first complete overview of energy transitions over the past thousand years.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.