One of America's leading foreign policy thinkers provides an "important and compelling" look at today's new power realities (Thomas L. Friedman, The New York Times ). In a time of war and uncertainty, The Ideas That Conquered the World offers a major statement about the fault lines of the twenty- first century, from globalization to terrorism, from great-power conflict to common security. Michael Mandelbaum argues that three ideas dominate the world: peace as the preferred basis for relations between and among countries, democracy as the optimal way to organize political life, and free markets as the indispensable vehicle for the creation of wealth. While not practiced everywhere, they have-for the first time in history-no serious rivals. The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the American military excursions into Afghanistan and Iraq that followed have not changed this. In The Ideas That Conquered the World , Michael Mandelbaum describes the uneven spread over the past two centuries of peace, democracy, and free markets around the world. And he assesses the prospects for these ideas in the years to come, giving particular attention to the United States, which bears the greatest responsibility for protecting and promoting them, and to Russia, China, and the Middle East, where their fate will affect the rest of the world.