Really?! Four years? What on earth could have happened to the world to demand a sequel so soon? “It is a hoax. Leave it on the shelf, Paul. The pages are smaller. The font is bigger. The line-spacing is wider. It is just opportunistic publishers making money. It will be too close too history to say anything profound about it.” 

Well, eventually … that earlier majesty seduced me and I succumbed. 

Unlike the first book, full of sedate conclusions and consequences, this one is full of breathless facts and observations as Frankopan journeys down five roads: ‘The Road to the East; … to the Heart of the World; … to Beijing; … to Rivalry; … to the Future’. Along the way there are a lot of busy, cluttered intersections and the message does become a bit messy.

However, as ‘a detailed snapshot of contemporary affairs’ (7), the book was valuable. If my review of Frankopan’s first book had fifteen fascinations, let me try and articulate five confirmations with this second book.

1. Maps are so cool. Confirmation 1. Snuggled in just after the Table of Contents, there is a classic one. While it depicts the Silk Roads as the region lying between the Eastern Mediterranean and the Pacific, this region is, increasingly, ‘everywhere … all roads used to lead to Rome. Today, they lead to Beijing’ (117), especially with its Belt and Road Initiative which involves 80 countries, covering 63% of the world’s population (91).

2. The author enjoys Aladdin’s song to Jasmine: ‘A whole new world … a new fantastic point of view … It’s crystal clear that now I’m in a whole new world with you.’ There are plenty of illustrations of this truth. He opens the book with the Silk Road ownership of so many English Premier League football clubs (21-24). He notes how Prada opened seven stores in one Chinese city (Xi’an) – in 2018 alone (32). He observes how ‘more anglophone students from across Africa now take courses in China than they do in either the UK or the US’ (123). It goes on and on and on.

But by the end of the book he is singing a slightly different tune. What is happening today is ‘not so much a new world being born; it is the old world being reborn’ (283) – referring, I assume, to the findings in his earlier book. Confirmation 2. The Silk Roads are ‘rising’ (289) once again. ‘How they develop, evolve and change will shape the world of the future, for good and for bad. Because the Silk Roads have always done just that’ (289, the final two sentences of the book!). ‘However traumatic or comical political life appears to be in the age of Brexit, the chaos of contemporary European politics or Trump, it is the countries of the Silk Roads that really matter in the twenty-first century’ (7).

3. All the U’s (my term, not his one) – the USA, the UK and the EU – are struggling, really struggling. ‘The west has lost its bearings and is losing its way in a changing world’ (275). A striking irony in the book is that while the west are being protectionist, isolationist, withdrawing behind borders, the countries of the Silk Roads are building ‘a world of increasing connections, greater cooperation and widening collaboration’ (247). Confirmation 3. ‘It is striking that the world is spinning in two different directions: de-coupling and going it alone in one, and deepening ties and trying to work together in another’ (51-52).  ‘The heart of the world is being knitted together’ (55) – and the west is missing out.

As new connections forge and old links are renewed, the west is in danger of becoming less and less relevant. When the west does engage and play a role, it is invariably to intervene or interfere in ways that create more problems than they solve – or to place obstacles and restrictions in place that limit the growth and prospects of others. The age of the west shaping the world in its image is long gone (283-4).

European businesses face the choice of being fined if they do business with Iran by the US – and being fined by the European Union if they do not. It is hard to think of a more appropiate way to show how the west has lost its way … the countries that have led the world for the last 300 years are finding it (difficult) to adapt to the changing world of the twenty-first century (201).

The ‘reckless’ and ‘unpredictable’ way in which Trump conducts foreign policy garners the most attention today. He is more adept at ‘using the stick rather than the carrot’ (273) and too easily loses sight of a principle of history: ‘nations with allies thrive’ (146). Of course, the other reality that is easily overlooked is that every time he withdraws from an agreement, or imposes sanctions, there is another country, like China and Russia, ever ready to step into the vacuum and increase their influence in the world. ‘While Beijing has been busy trying to find partners in all places at all times, it is striking to see how few friends the US and the west have along the Silk Roads’ (229-230).

4. Here’s the deal, the sadness that will stick with me. The countries along the Silk Roads are ‘deeply flawed’ (276) because, again and again, they are the ones where freedom is rarely found: it is ‘the difficulty of championing progress while practising repression’ (38). Confirmation 4. Since the first book was writtten (just four years ago – remember 😀) this has got worse, not better. They talk a good talk, but …

Most have poor records on human rights, conscience and sexuality, and control their media, dictating what does not appear in the press. Criticising the government, the president or their intimates often results in time in prison, or, in some cases, death (276).

I learned some years ago that statistics on the education of young girls is a key indicator of a country’s well-being. Well, how about women with a bank account? In the heart of the Silk Roads, the statistics are as varied, as they are troubling: Kazakhstan (56%); Azerbaijan (26%); Kyrgyzstan (19%) and Turkmenistan (2%).

I’ve just started reading William Dalrymple’s new book, The Anarchy – on the East India Company, the largest corporation the world has ever known. Gee whiz, a lot of what I read in The New Silk Roads sounds so similar, but just flowing in the other direction – from east to west, a few centuries later, with China at the helm this time. “Right back at ya”.

5. As a Christian with a heart for the peoples of the world, many of the ministries of which I am aware seem to be so far off-the-pace with these realities, stuck back in a world that is being eclipsed. There are new skills to learn – like the art of friendship and collaboration across borders (be they real or symbolic) and then leading through these partnerships which are free of self-interest and nationalism. 1 Corinthians 12 is so suggestive of a way forward (see here and here). Our host nations may be increasingly clueless on how to do this and may have this capacity to make enemies along the Silk Roads, but we must not live in this manner. Confirmation 5. ‘The Silk Roads are rising fast because they are being galvanised’ (86). How will we respond?

nice chatting

Paul