The author of The Post-American World, Fareed Zakaria, has a reputation that suggests the prototype for the twenty-first century Renaissance man. Zakaria was born in India, with Muslim roots but a secular upbringing. He was educated at a Christian school, then at Yale and Harvard. He studied international relations with two luminaries in the field, Samuel P. Huntington and Stanley Hoffmann. Add to this good looks, a facility with words and experience in journalism, and it is no wonder that it was he who succeeded in getting a serious foreign affairs show on to CNN.

But all that sophistication can descend into glibness. The international citizen, who might have brought a new perspective on geopolitics, has instead looked at these issues primarily because he wants the best for his adopted country, the United States. There is nothing wrong with that if it is a clearly stated aim rather than being buried at the back of the book in the acknowledgments. It also makes Zakaria seem less cosmopolitan than anticipated.