The End of the Nation-State Translated by Victoria Elliott

Guéhenno's lucid and imaginative discussion in The End of the Nation-State presents a collection of arguments that are interwoven so neatly that the book often reads as smoothly as a good novel. But the character of the book is as much a clear argument as it is a mosaic of visionary speculation. The narrative brings us Guéhenno's thoughtful vision of a future "imperial" world, with its blurring geographical boundaries, changing poles of authority, and networking global society. Perhaps in a derogatory analysis, his synthesis of argument (without citation) and speculation would be construed as fiction, but it should not be. Intimations of the coming age, which Guéhenno finds in the politics of the United States, Japan, Lebanon, France, Italy, Israel and Palestine, illustrate the empirically grounded theorizing and perspicacious observation the author brings to important, and perhaps previously unnoticed, changes in world affairs. While it is always easy to disparage an author's efforts at clairvoyance, most of Guéhenno's hypotheses in this book are presented so cogently, and often poetically, that many of his future scenarios, however chilling and undesirable, seem almost inevitable.