CONNECTOGRAPHY: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization

About

We’re accelerating into a future shaped less by countries than by connectivity. Mankind has a new maxim – Connectivity is destiny – and the most connected powers, and people, will win.

In this book Parag Khanna guides us through the emerging global network civilization in which mega-cities compete over connectivity more than borders. His journeys take us from Ukraine to Iran, Mongolia to North Korea, Panama City to Dubai, and the Arctic Circle to the South China Sea—all to show how 21st century conflict is a tug-of-war over pipelines and Internet cables, advanced technologies and market access.

Yet Connectography is a hopeful vision of the future. Khanna argues that new energy discoveries and innovations have eliminated the need for resource wars, global financial assets are being deployed to build productive infrastructure that can reduce inequality, and frail regions such as Africa and the Middle East are unscrambling their fraught colonial borders through ambitious new transportation corridors and power grids. Beneath the chaos of a world that appears to be falling apart is a new foundation of connectivity pulling it together.

READ "A NOTE ABOUT MAPS" (PDF)

Endorsements

To get where you want to go, it helps to have a good map. In Connectography, Parag Khanna surveys the economic, political and technological landscape and lays out the case for why ‘competitive connectivity’--with cities and supply chains as the vital nodes--is the true arms race of the 21st century. This bold reframing is an exciting addition to our ongoing debate about geopolitics and the future of globalization.

– Dominic Barton Global Managing Partner, McKinsey & Company

In high style, Parag Khanna re-imagines the world through the lens of globally connected supply-chain networks. It is a world still fraught with perils — old and new — but one ever more likely to nurture peace and sustain progress.

– John Arquilla Professor, United States Naval Postgraduate School

Connectography gives the reader an amazing new view of human society, bypassing the time-worn categories frameworks we usually use. It shows us a view of our world as a living thing that really exists: the flows of people, ideas, and materials that constitute our constantly-evolving reality. Connectography is a must-read for anyone who wants to understand the future of humanity.

– Sandy Pentland Professor, MIT Media Lab

Take what you think you know about globalization. Now add steroids. A well-traveled, well-informed guide, Khanna presents a consistently interesting, almost wholly persuasive vision of a future in which flow prevails over friction, where globalization's new scale, depth, and intensity reshape the map we thought we knew.

– Kirkus Reviews

I found Connectography invaluable and compelling reading.

– Hazel Henderson Seeking Alpha

Connectography is ahead of the curve in seeing the battlefield of the future, and the new kind of tug-of-war being waged on it. Khanna's scholarship and foresight are world-class. A must-read for the next President.

– Chuck Hagel Former U.S. Secretary of Defense

This is probably the most global book ever written. It is intensely specific while remaining broad and wide. Its takeaway is that infrastructure is destiny: Follow the supply lines outlined in this book to see where the future flows.

– Kevin Kelly Senior Maverick, WIRED

Khanna's new book is a brilliant exploration of supply-chain geopolitics and how the intersection of technology with geography is reshaping the global political economy. It is an intellectual tour de force that sparkles with original insights, stimulating assertions, little-known facts, and well-researched predictions.

– Chas W. Freeman, Jr. Chairman, U.S. China Policy Foundation, and former U.S. Ambassador to Saudi Arabia

Connectography proves why the past is no longer prologue to the future. There’s no better guide than Parag Khanna to show us all the possibilities of this new hyper-connected world.

– Mathew Burrows Director, Strategic Foresight Initiative at the Atlantic Council, and former Counselor, U.S. National Intelligence Council

Khanna imagines a near-future in which infrastructural and economic connections supersede traditional geopolitical coordinates as the primary means of navigating our world. He makes a persuasive case: Connectography is as compelling and richly expressive as the ancient maps from which it draws its inspiration.

– Sir Martin Sorrell Founder and CEO, WPP

Reading Connectography is a real adventure. The expert knowledge of Parag Khanna has produced a comprehensive and fascinating book anchored in geography but extending out to every field that connects people around the globe. His deep insight into communications, logistics and the many other globally critical areas is remarkable. An invaluable resource for anyone involved in business, science, arts or any other field.

– Mark Mobius Executive Chairman, Templeton Emerging Markets Group

Parag Khanna’s latest book provides an invaluable guide to the volatile, confusing worlds of early 21st century geopolitics. A provocative remapping of contemporary capitalism based on planetary mega-infrastructures, inter-continental corridors of connectivity and transnational supply chains rather than traditional political borders.

– Neil Brenner Director, Urban Theory Lab, Harvard University Graduate School of Design

Among the several hundred books I'm studying for my book on Maintenance, none has more revelations per page than Parag Khanna's CONNECTOGRAPHY: Mapping the Future of Global Civilization.

– Stewart Brand Founder of the Global Business Network and Long Now Foundation

Connectivity has become a basic human rights, and gives everyone on the planet the opportunity to provide for their family and contribute to our shared future. Connectography charts the future of this connected world.

– Marc Andreessen General Partner, Andreessen Horowitz

TRADING PARTNERS

In the 21st century, trade flows compete with military power as a means of influence. China is the top trade partner for twice as many countries as the United States, and is gaining more leverage over them.

THE WORLD 4 DEGREES WARMER

One of the greatest geopolitical changes of the 21st century will be climate change.The entire population of the Arctic region today is less than 4 million people but it could boom to 400 million within the coming years. This map from The British journal New Scientist outlines which geographies will produce the most food if temperatures rise 4 degrees Celsius.

AFRICA'S REMAINING FAULTLINES

Beware of straight lines on maps. Africa, which has more straight lines than any other continent, was not divided based geographic or cultural factors but by European countries' bargaining power. This map shows the lingering armed separatist movements and zones of autonomous control within the continent and displays the limits of our current political maps.

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URBAN ARCHIPELAGOS AS CENTERS OF GRAVITY

Mega-city clusters dominate the world economy. In many countries, the capital city or financial center often represents up to half or more of the national GDP. By 2030, we could have as many as 50 such urban hubs anchoring the global system.

THE NORTH AMERICAN UNION

North America is evolving beyond the NAFTA trade agreement into an integrated mega-continent of shared resources and infrastructure. Pipelines, railways, electricity grids and eventually hydrological canals all embody the deeper unity emerging across Canada, the US and Mexico, which together form an energy, water, industry and agriculture superpower spanning the Arctic to Central America.