The Return of the Great Powers

'This bracing tour d'horizon of the once and future world order, although aimed at the informed layman, is well worth reading . . . Simms has done much to rescue the reputation of geopolitical writing, often the preserve of the charlatan, the witless pundit and the video gamer. His newest work is no exception'
THE TIMES

'Timely . . . thought-provoking'
FINANCIAL TIMES

'Cuts through the noise to give the reader geopolitical clarity'
TIM MARSHALL

'Shines powerful light on the state of contemporary geopolitics . . . Profound'
ANDREW ROBERTS

'Wide-ranging and provocative'
FIONA HILL

'Simms is one of the most knowledgeable and formidable analysts of how the Great Powers will shape the new order'
RANA MITTER

From an acclaimed historian, a sweeping study of the past, present, and future of the Great Powers, revealing the new rules of global leadership.

From the dawn of the modern era to the end of the Cold War, global history was defined by rivalries between great powers. In the West, this meant the struggle for supremacy in Europe and the Americas, while in the East, it encompassed those vying for control over the successor states to Genghis Khan's empire. Between 1989 and the year 2000, great power rivalry temporarily gave way to globalization, with liberal democracy on the march and national chauvinism seemingly in retreat. But events of the past decade have made one thing abundantly clear: the great powers are back.

In The Return of the Great Powers, renowned historian Brendan Simms offers a new history of the rise, fall, and return of the Great Powers in our time. He shows that over the past ten years or so, the major global actors have already resumed making decisions based on geopolitical rather than global economic considerations. Delivering a clear-eyed reckoning with today's most pressing geopolitical issues, from the Ukraine war to the future of American dominance, The Return of the Great Powers insists that we can only understand the future of the great powers by looking to the history that forged them.