Reckoning With Power

Stephanie McCurry tells a very different tale of the Confederate experience. When the grandiosity of Southerners’ national ambitions met the harsh realities of wartime crises, unintended consequences ensued. Although Southern statesmen and generals had built the most powerful slave regime in the Western world, they had excluded the majority of their own people—white women and slaves—and thereby sowed the seeds of their demise.

A leading forecaster of economic and political trends takes a sharp look at the decline of American influence in the world, and how it can prepare for the new reality. The age of American global dominance is ending. Today, a host of forces are converging to challenge its cherished notion of exceptionalism, and risky economic and foreign policies have steadily eroded the power structure in place since the Cold War. Staggering under a huge burden of debt, the country must make some tough choices—or cede sovereignty to its creditors. In The Reckoning, Michael Moran, geostrategy analyst explores the challenges ahead -- and what, if anything, can be prevent chaos as America loses its perch at the top of the mountain. Covering developments like unprecedented information technologies, the growing prosperity of China, India, Brazil, and Turkey, and the diminished importance of Wall Street in the face of global markets, Moran warns that the coming shift will have serious consequences not just for the United States, but for the wider world. Countries that have traditionally depended on the United States for protection and global stability will have to fend for themselves. Moran describes how, with a bit of wise leadership, America can transition to this new world order gracefully—by managing entitlements, reigniting sustainable growth, reforming immigration policy, launching new regional dialogues that bring friend and rival together in cooperative multinational structures, and breaking the poisonous deadlock in Washington. If not, he warns, history won't wait.

History is clear: Whenever the church has aligned itself with worldly, coercive power, it ends up on the wrong side of important justice issues. But when the church cooperates with God's power through his presence among the least powerful, its witness for Jesus transforms the world into a better place. In Reckoning with Power, David Fitch unpacks the difference between worldly power, or power over others, and God's power, which engages not in coercion but in love, reconciliation, grace, forgiveness, and healing. In a world where we can see the abuses of power everywhere--in our homes, schools, governments, and churches--Fitch teaches readers how to discern power and avoid its abuses and traumas. By learning from the church's historical pitfalls, Fitch empowers Christians to relinquish worldly power and make space for God to disrupt and transform our culture for his kingdom.

A Financial Times Best Book of 2017 “A shrewd and knowing book.” —Robert D. Kaplan, The Wall Street Journal “A compelling and impressive read.” —The Economist “Skillfully crafted and well-argued.” —Jeffrey Wasserstrom, Financial Times “An excellent modern history. . . . provides the context needed to make sense of the region’s present and future.” —Joyce Lau, South China Morning Post A history of the combative military, diplomatic, and economic relations among China, Japan, and the United States since the 1970s—and the potential crisis that awaits them Richard McGregor’s Asia’s Reckoning is a compelling account of the widening geopolitical cracks in a region that has flourished under an American security umbrella for more than half a century. The toxic rivalry between China and Japan, two Asian giants consumed with endless history wars and ruled by entrenched political dynasties, is threatening to upend the peace underwritten by Pax Americana since World War II. Combined with Donald Trump’s disdain for America’s old alliances and China's own regional ambitions, east Asia is entering a new era of instability and conflict. If the United States laid the postwar foundations for modern Asia, now the anchor of the global economy, Asia’s Reckoning reveals how that structure is falling apart. With unrivaled access to archives in the United States and Asia, as well as to many of the major players in all three countries, Richard McGregor has written a tale that blends the tectonic shifts in diplomacy with bitter domestic politics and the personalities driving them. It is a story not only of an overstretched America, but also of the rise and fall and rise of the great powers of Asia. The about-turn of Japan—from a colossus seemingly poised for world domination to a nation in inexorable decline in the space of two decades—has few parallels in modern history, as does the rapid rise of China—a country whose military is now larger than those of Japan, South Korea, Taiwan and southeast Asia's combined. The confrontational course on which China and Japan are set is no simple spat between neighbors: the United States would be involved on the side of Japan in any military conflict between the two countries. The fallout would be an economic tsunami, affecting manufacturing centers, trade routes, and political capitals on every continent. Richard McGregor’s book takes us behind the headlines of his years reporting as the Financial Times’s Beijing and Washington bureau chief to show how American power will stand or fall on its ability to hold its ground in Asia.

The rise of the corporate supercitizen and the consequences for society Only about thirty countries possess the powers usually associated with sovereign nations. The rest can’t actually defend their borders, govern their finances independently, or meet the basic needs of their people. In this provocative and persuasive new book, David Rothkopf calls these others semistates and argues that they’re much less powerful than hundreds of corporate supercitizens. A multitude of facts demonstrates the reach of the modern corporation. Walmart has revenues greater than the GDP of all but twenty-five nations. The world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, controls $3.3 trillion, almost as much as the currency reserves held by China and Japan combined. Corporations in Third World countries routinely hire mercenary armies to enforce their will, and in some cases (such as Shell in Nigeria), they control the politicians as well. Striking a balance between public and private power has become the defining challenge for all societies. In Power, Inc., Rothkopf argues that the decline of the state is irreversible. The way forward is to harness corporate resources in the service of individual nations to forge a radically new relationship between the individual and the institutions that govern our lives.

Australian voters ousting a nine-year-old Coalition government. A step towards instituting a First Nations Voice to Parliament. Rising tension between China and the US. Entrenched structures of authority have been challenged at home and around the world this year. 2022: Reckoning With Power and Privilege is a collection of The Conversation's most insightful essays from leading thinkers, explaining the potent forces that continue to shape our world - the winding back of abortion rights in the US, relations redefined in the Pacific, the UK Prime Minister forced to resign - and how those with the privilege of power don't always prevail. Here is the inside guide to 2022's momentous events, bookended by the brutal invasion of Ukraine and a new head of the Commonwealth (not forgetting Shane Warne's sudden death, the wrapping up of Neighbours, and the rise of TikTok), written by the experts you can trust. Contributors include: Bronwyn Carlson Jacob Deem Prudence Flowers Michelle Grattan Matthew Horney Peter Martin Denis Muller Kate Power Chris Wallace Hugh White Zora Simic Tim Soutphommasane Paul Strangio Ariadne Vromen

The instant New York Times and USA Today bestseller America is suffering from PTSD—The Reckoning diagnoses its core causes and helps us begin the healing process. For four years, Donald J. Trump inflicted an onslaught of overlapping and interconnected traumas upon the American people, targeting anyone he perceived as being an “other” or an enemy. Women were discounted and derided, the sick were dismissed as weak and unworthy of help, immigrants and minorities were demonized and discriminated against, and money was elevated above all else. In short, he transformed our country into a macro version of his malignantly dysfunctional family. How can we make sense of the degree to which our institutions and leaders have let us down? How can we negotiate a world in which all sense of safety and justice seems to have been destroyed? How can we—as individuals and as a nation—confront, process, and overcome this loss of trust and the ways we have been forever altered by chaos, division, and cruelty? And when the dust finally settles, how can we begin to heal, in the midst of ongoing health and economic crises and the greatest political divide since the Civil War? Mary L. Trump is uniquely positioned to answer these difficult questions. She holds a Ph.D. in clinical psychology specializing in trauma, has herself been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder, and happens to be Donald J. Trump’s only niece. In The Reckoning, she applies her unique expertise to the task of helping us confront an all-encompassing trauma, one that has taken an immense toll on our nation’s health and well-being. A new leader alone cannot fix us. Donald J. Trump is only the latest symptom of a disease that has existed within the body politic since America’s inception—from the original sin of slavery through our unceasing, organized commitment to inequality. Our failure to acknowledge this, let alone root it out, has allowed it to metastasize. Now, we are confronted with the limits of our own agency on a daily basis. Whether it manifests itself in rising levels of rage and hatred, or hopelessness and apathy, the unspeakable stress of living in a country we no longer recognize has affected all of us for a long time, in ways we may not fully understand. An enormous amount of healing must be done to rebuild our lives, our faith in leadership, and our hope for this nation. It starts with The Reckoning.

If you have been born again through faith in Jesus Christ, now reckon yourself dead to sin and alive to God in Christ! Learn to think about your "new self" in Christ as God does. With a pastor's heart, Stuart C. Smith explains why the key to New Covenant sanctification is the important concept of biblical reckoning. Obedience to Paul's command in Romans 6:11 can transform your life. Reckoning is not something to do but something to think. So powerful is this thought that it inevitably leads to action. Learn how to overcome the power of sin by a stronger power, and the desire to sin by a stronger desire--adoration of Jesus Christ. Bring your thinking in line with your identity. You are a new creation in Christ, a saint, an adopted child of God, and victor over Satan. Learn about the Father's passion for you, and seek to satisfy his passion for a holy and pure bride for his Son. Midway through the book, these principles come alive in the experience of Cody, a young man who leaves his troubled past for a new life of freedom in Christ.