Historic shifts have provided an opportunity for the world to move from the tutelage of the sole superpower, America, to a multi-polar global order, one where America’s moral, economic, and military leadership will be profoundly challenged. What form will this world resemble? What are the perils and promises of this new power order? In After Empire, Dilip Hiro provides a realistic, challenging, and nuanced look at the emerging power politics of the coming century and considers how they are going to turn our world upside-down.

The book explains the benefits of free trade and globalization for middle-class, Main Street Americans. It offers a spirited defense of free trade and globalization that engages the populists on their own turf. It shows how middle- and low-income families benefit from import competition, and how a more globalized U.S. economy has created better jobs and higher living standards for American workers through the ups and downs of the business cycle.