Economist specialising in global income inequality; formerly lead economist in the World Bank research department, now at the CUNY Graduate Center.
loved
It is a quick read, an excellent book whose main virtue is not, in my opinion, direct analogy with the World War I, but a treatment of how in a multipolar world relatively small international events, misunderstandings, idiosyncratic fits of leaders, “hubris and fear” (as Westad often writes), resentment of the elite and of the public prodded by the media, can produce colossal miscalculations which then produce even more colossal wars and, in the era of the weapons of mass destruction, may end the civilization.
Milanovic's review of Westad's book on multipolarity and the lessons of 1914; he notes in the post that the author gifted him the book at a conference.
2026-08-31·branko2f7.substack.com ↗