Search results for ""Author Oliver Letwin""

China's rise as a global superpower has completely reshaped the landscape of international politics. As the country's authoritarian regime becomes increasingly assertive on the world stage, the United States grows ever more hostile to its Asian rival. Repressive moves by China in Xinjiang and Hong Kong, military activities in the South China Sea and Western measures against Chinese companies have only exacerbated tensions. While the great powers of East and West battle over hegemony, the world is being led inexorably towards a new Cold War. During his time as a Cabinet minister attending National Security Council meetings, Oliver Letwin realised that there was no agreement among Western politicians and academics on how to conduct a peaceful long-term relationship with China. China vs America traces the contours of history, both ancient and modern, to explain how China has emerged as a challenger to American power in the twenty-first century and why this has created such uneasiness in the West. In this robust and controversial assessment, Letwin argues that the international rules-based order is completely ill equipped to foster a positive relationship between China and the United States and that the global community must act now to correct the collision course these two behemoths are currently on before it's too late.

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'Entertaining and insightful' -- Evening Standard'One of the most important books of the year... Compelling' Jamie Bartlett, Literary Review'Timely' -- New StatesmanAs the world becomes better connected and we grow ever more dependent on technology, the risks to our infrastructure are multiplying. Whether it's a hostile state striking the national grid (like Russia did with Ukraine in 2016) or a freak solar storm, our systems have become so interlinked that if one part goes down the rest topple like dominoes.In this groundbreaking book, former government minister Oliver Letwin looks ten years into the future and imagines a UK in which the national grid has collapsed. Reliant on the internet, automated electric cars, voice-over IP, GPS, and the internet of things, law and order would disintegrate. Taking us from high-level government meetings to elderly citizens waiting in vain for their carers, this book is a wake up call for why we should question our unshakeable faith in technology. But it's much more than that: Letwin uses his vast experience in government to outline how businesses and government should respond to catastrophic black swan events that seem distant and implausible - until they occur.

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An important new book by one of the Britain's great liberal thinkers, Hearts and Minds is part memoir, part political history and part history of ideas. In it, former Cabinet minister Oliver Letwin explains how the central ideas and policies of the modern Conservative party came into being, how they have played out over the period from Mrs Thatcher to Mrs May, and what needs to happen next in order to make the country a better place to live. Far from being a sugar-coated version of events, Letwin tells a story that he hopes will persuade readers that politicians are capable of recognising their mistakes and learning from them – and will show that social and economic liberalism, if correctly conceived, are capable of addressing the issues that confront us today. The book also describes Letwin’s own journey from a remarkable childhood with American academic parents, via Margaret Thatcher’s policy unit, into the very centre of first the Conservative—Liberal Democrat coalition, and then the Cameron government, where, as Minister for Government Policy and then Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, every piece of government policy crossed his desk. It includes Letwin’s personal reflections on two devastating electoral events: the EU referendum and the general election of June 2017.

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'Entertaining and insightful' -- Evening Standard'One of the most important books of the year... Compelling' Jamie Bartlett, Literary Review'Timely' -- New StatesmanAs the world becomes better connected and we grow ever more dependent on technology, the risks to our infrastructure are multiplying. Whether it's a hostile state striking the national grid (like Russia did with Ukraine in 2016) or a freak solar storm, our systems have become so interlinked that if one part goes down the rest topple like dominoes.In this groundbreaking book, former government minister Oliver Letwin looks ten years into the future and imagines a UK in which the national grid has collapsed. Reliant on the internet, automated electric cars, voice-over IP, GPS, and the internet of things, law and order would disintegrate. Taking us from high-level government meetings to elderly citizens waiting in vain for their carers, this book is a wake up call for why we should question our unshakeable faith in technology. But it's much more than that: Letwin uses his vast experience in government to outline how businesses and government should respond to catastrophic black swan events that seem distant and implausible - until they occur.

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