This provocative book instantly entered the bestseller list of The New York Times. Its author, American political scientist George Friedman, director of the private intelligence and analytical organization Stratfor, offers readers a forecast of the changes that can be expected in the world in the 21st century. The current seeming weakening of the United States, according to Friedman, is an illusion. American power is so great that it is impossible to undermine it. The peak of the power of the States will be at the end of the 21st century. Weak-willed and lost taste for battles, Europe will lose its significance. Chinese growth is a soap bubble that will burst soon. On the geopolitical horizon, new stars will rise in turn: Japan, Turkey, Poland, Mexico. Russia will achieve its goal and regain control over the post-Soviet space in the 2020s, but after that it will collapse and collapse completely, unable to withstand competition with stronger states.