Eurasian Century: Hot Wars, Cold Wars, and the Making of the Modern World

One of Foreign Policy's Most Anticipated Books of 2025An urgent and incisive new framework for understanding the originsand stakesof global conflict with China, Russia, and Iran.We often think of the modern era as the age of American power. In reality, were living in a long, violent Eurasian century. That giant, resource-rich landmass possesses the bulk of the global population, industrial might, and potential military power; it touches all four of the great oceans. Eurasia is a strategic prize without equalwhich is why the world has been roiled, reshaped, and nearly destroyed by clashes over the supercontinent.Since the early twentieth century, autocratic powersfrom Germany under Kaiser Wilhelm II to the Soviet Unionhave aspired for dominance by seizing commanding positions in the worlds strategic heartland. Offshore sea powers, namely the United Kingdom and America, have sought to make the world safe for democracy by keeping Eurasia in balance. Americas rivalries with China, Russia, and Iran are the next round in this geopolitical game. If this new authoritarian axis succeeds in enacting a radically revised international order, America and other democracies will be vulnerable and insecure.Hal Brands, a renowned expert on global affairs, argues that a better understanding of Eurasias strategic geography can illuminate the contours of rivalry and conflict in todays world. The Eurasian Century explains how revolutions in technology and warfare, and the rise of toxic ideologies of conquest, made Eurasia the center of twentieth-century geopoliticswith pressing implications for the struggles that will define the twenty-first.