Future: Tense: The Coming World Order

Danial Duda is an information services librarian in the Queen Elizabeth
II Library, Memorial University of Newfoundland.

In clear and straightforward prose, Gwynne Dyer discusses the prospects
for international affairs in the coming years. His academic background
in international affairs and his current work as a journalist well
qualifies him to tackle such a critical issue.

According to Dyer, the world order that was developing in the 1990s is
now threatened by the war in Iraq and the fact that the U.S. military
intervention in that country was not sanctioned by the UN. If the United
States and its allies don’t pull out of Iraq in a timely fashion, Dyer
warns, different armed camps will form and create alliances to protect
their own interests. Over time they will become adversaries, creating a
scenario similar to pre-1914 Europe. Given all the nuclear weapons out
there, this is not a pleasant scenario. Dyer provides good explanations
for the current state of world affairs, discussing the history of
Islamism and American fundamentalism and how they came into conflict in
the last couple of decades.

Despite its grave subject, Future: Tense is a pleasure to read. A minor
irritation is the lack of bibliography and index, but that should not
deter public and academic libraries from purchasing the book.