This book is both an intellectual and a boots-on-the-ground journey. Khanna goes from Ukraine to Iran, Mongolia to North Korea, and the Arctic Circle to the South China Sea to show how tug-of-war over pipelines, railways and Internet cables is what conflict looks like today. But Connectography is also a hopeful book, as the increase in connectivity heralds an era of competition but also stability like never before. Khanna argues that new energy discoveries and technologies have eliminated the need for resource wars; ambitious new railways and electricity grids are unscrambling Africa’s fraught colonial borders; and even the Arab world is evolving a more peaceful map as it builds resource infrastructures across its war-torn landscape. Beneath the chaos of a world that appears to be falling apart is a new foundation of connectivity pulling it together.
Khanna’s book provides a blueprint for winning in this new, post-national age. Places that invest in world-class airports, real estate, and schools, and attract the best and brightest—places like New York, Dubai, and Singapore—will lead our global network civilization. Areas that remain isolated from global flows of investment and knowledge will inevitably decay—unless they transform themselves into thriving nodes along the lines set down in this book.