The world's foremost intellectual activist offers a probing examination of changing American power, the threats to democracy, and the future of the global order. In an incisive, thorough analysis of the current international situation, Noam Chomsky examines the way that the United States, despite the rise of Europe and Asia, still largely sets the terms of global discourse. Drawing on a wide range of examples, from the sordid history of U.S. involvement with Cuba to the latest developments in China, from the torture memos to the sanctions on Iran, he details how America's rhetoric of freedom and human rights so often diverges from its actions. And he delves deep into the conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Israel-Palestine, providing unexpected and nuanced insights into the workings of imperial power on our increasingly chaotic planet. Fierce, unsparing, and meticulously documented, Who Rules the World? delivers the indispensable understanding of the central issues of our time that we have come to expect from Chomsky. Book jacket.