Y the J Curve

'The J curve, a new way to understand why nations rise and fall' is a newish book by Ian Bremmer about, not surprisingly, the rise and fall of nations. I just finished it and I didn't think it was bad, with the only piece of criticism I have being that it's boring. (Normally you would argue that that is actually a killer piece of criticism, but those types of things change when you're talking about a book of politics.)

The basic premise, where the J curve basically describes the difference between closed nations and open nations (with closed nations sitting on the short end of the J and open nations on the long end) is interesting enough. It does a pretty good job of explaining why so many nations fail to move from closed to open (which is the bend in the J, where stability is lowest) and it is in general a useful analogy to look at the political world.

Still, like is often the case with these types of books, I felt there was a lot of fluff to fill in what was not all that complex of an idea (inspired maybe, complex no). Maybe it wasn't really aimed at me though, as I took a great deal of the arguments as self evident, which many people clearly don't do. Maybe this book was more aimed at those that believe that external force can open up a society and make it liberal and free. (This book argues it can't and it doesn't).

I think I advise this book only to those that have a keen interest in politics and either disagree strongly with the author, or drink a great deal of coffee. Though I guess it might serve as a bed time story, cause at times it certainly made me sleepy.