World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability by Amy Chua (2002).

By Neha Malik

Amy Chua is a well-known American lawyer, legal writer, and scholar. She is John M. Duff Jr. Professor of Law at Yale Law School. Her areas of expertise include international business, ethnic conflict, and globalisation. Her book World on Fire: How Exporting Free Market Democracy Breeds Ethnic Hatred and Global Instability was a New York Times bestseller, and both The Economist and the UK’s Guardian have named it one of the Best Books of the Year 2002. In the book, Chua highlights the dark side of globalisation. She makes an argument of how there are winners and losers of globalisation. Some countries have benefitted from this phenomenon, but developing countries had to deal with its consequences. As a result, a market-dominated minority emerged, contributing to socio-economic injustice, ethnic hatred, and regional instability. To support her arguments, she provides examples from Africa, Russia, and Southeast Asia. It is a must-read book as it highlights the adverse effects of globalisation and how different regions in the world are affected by it. Although the book was published almost twenty years ago, I believe it is still relevant, particularly since countries’ dependency on one another in terms of international trade and investments has grown, influencing mainstream society on multiple levels: socially, politically, and economically. I would recommend this book as a must-read especially to have a better understanding of the rise of right-wing parties around the world, protectionist policies, and ethnic conflicts.

Sources

Information about Amy Chua https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/authors/4934/amy-chua/

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https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/27643/ world-on-fire-by-amy-chua/