# Has the West Lost It?: A Provocation **Author:** Kishore Mahbubani **Date Read:** 2019/11/24 **Rating:** 2/5 **Bookshelves:** ## My Review The only nice thing about the book is that it’s a quick read. Overly simple and - by design - written for casual reading western audience. That the author eventually asks the west to drop its naïveté and seek refuge in Machiavelli ought to have already biased me a bit about what’s to follow but thanks to a strong recommendation by a respected senior (Western) colleague i gave it a read anyway. Very broad brushes about stories of hope across the world, lacking in detail, and somewhat drily apolitical to apologism for “southern strongMen”. And the final prescription apart from literate Machiavellian strategy is the bitter medicine of humility to the West...what can I say...while I agree with the authors title, I can hardly see a good argument for what he offers in explanation.