In this portrait of the human community as it enters the 21st century, the author argues that in a world of dwindling resources, economic inequality and unremitting violence, the belief in endless progress can no longer be sustained. Explaining that we have arrived at a great historic divide, De Santis asserts that the old modern order is giving way to an age of "mutualism". He draws on world history and the study of international relations to explore the emerging future, in which new forms of social and political identity and regional associations and alignments will be needed to solve global problems. Demonstrating that mutualism will require a dramatic change in the way states, international institutions, corporations and local communities interact, the book argues that this transformation will be especially difficult for the United States, which will have to abandon its exceptionalist identity and rejoin a world it can no longer escape.