The Accidental Superpower summary

The United States is now an economic, political and military powerhouse. Why? Plenty of luck.

The United States has a great geopolitical situation. Its borders have been mostly protected from neighboring populations for hundreds of years. While European powers fought each other for centuries across the Atlantic, they ignored the United States, which became more and more organized and stable.

In 1944, the United States did something unheard of. After proving military and economic power during the war they proposed the Bretton Woods Agreement, which was aimed at reshaping the world in the wake of World War Two.

It ushered in a new era of globalization and allowed the US to establish a degree of global economic stability between the former Allies. The agreement contained several important points. It established a network of free trade and introduced a shared monetary system based on the value of the dollar, which in turn was linked to the price of gold. The agreement also granted the US Navy safe travel on trade routes all around the world.

Humans are living longer than ever in the modern era, thanks to a high level of nutrition and excellent medical care. That's great, but it also means that global demographics are shifting wildly and creating problems we've never faced before.

In most modern nations, the proportion of older citizens is growing very rapidly, meaning governments have to find a way to take care of them.

As we’ve seen, the world is changing faster than ever. Globalization, demographic shifts and climate change tell just part of the story. What does all this mean for Europe? It’s going to change completely.

First, the demographic changes we learned about in the previous blink will chip away at European countries’ productivity.

Europe and Japan are poised to face serious problems in the coming decades, and we've just seen that Europe may even fall into war. Does that mean the United States will fall apart too?

Doubtful.

It's fairly easy for Westerners to travel the Western world these days. Trade agreements and the EU allow people to move from country to country looking for work.

This means more and more people are not living in the same place they were born. Without Bretton Woods and the EU, however, migration will become much more difficult, dangerous and expensive. Travel will become a privilege for the highly skilled or wealthy.