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E-book
Author Thompson, William R., author.

Title Racing to the top : how energy fuels system leadership in world politics / William R. Thompson and Leila Zakhirova
Published New York, NY : Oxford University Press, 2018

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Description 1 online resource : illustrations (black and white)
Contents Part I : Introduction -- 1. Systemic leadership and energy : the argument -- 2. The leadership long cycle framework -- 3. Revising the framework: energy and Eurasian history -- Part II : The past -- 4. Rome as the pinnacle of the western ancient world -- 5. China: the incomplete transition -- 6. The Netherlands: not quite the first modern economy and its immediate predecessors -- 7. Britain: the first modern industrial economy: combining technology and energy -- 8. The United States: emulating and surpassing Britain -- 9. Comparing the four main cases -- Part III : The future -- 10. Energy, technology, and (possibly) the nature of the next world economy upswing -- 11. Fracking, warming, and systemic leadership -- 12. Racing to a renewable transition? -- 13. Denouement: world politics, systemic leadership, and climate change
Summary Over the past two millennia, one state has tended to lead as the foremost producer of energy and new technology. While it has not been fully recognized, these leads have become increasingly reliant on energy transitions that make new technological innovations relatively inexpensive. Since the edge of the incumbent system leader (the United States) appears to be eroding, the question is what might come next. As carbon-based fuels become scarcer and/or more damaging, new sources of energy will be needed. Renewable energy will be one of those sources, but it remains unclear whether a renewable regime can be constructed to replace the carbon regime and how long such a transition might take. In the absence of a new energy foundation, there is less reason to anticipate a change in systemic leadership in this century. One might also anticipate less likelihood of a successful response to global warming in the absence of global leadership. But these expectations assume that the energy-technology nexus is fundamental to the ascent of a new system leader. Rather than assume such a proposition, it is better to demonstrate its historical evolution since the fall of Rome by examining a sequence of state efforts to overcome the constraints of an agrarian political economy operating within the context of a solar energy regime. The story stretches from first-millennium China through the Italian city-states and Portugal to the Netherlands, Britain, and the United States. Once the historical foundation is laid, we then evaluate current U.S. and Chinese efforts to reform their energy foundations as part of a bid for future systemic leadership
Notes Previously issued in print: 2018
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Audience Specialized
Notes Online resource; title from home page (viewed on September 18, 2018)
Subject Energy policy -- Case studies
Energy development -- Case studies
Energy consumption -- Case studies
BUSINESS & ECONOMICS -- Real Estate -- General.
Energy consumption
Energy development
Energy policy
Genre/Form Electronic books
Case studies
Case studies.
Études de cas.
Form Electronic book
Author Zakhirova, Leila, author.
ISBN 9780190909574
0190909579
9780190699703
0190699701