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Giovanni Arrighi's The Long Twentieth Century is an almost unfathomably ambitious andcomplex work. Its monumentality derives from Arrighi 's conviction that the best way to handicapthe possible futures of the world capitalist geo-economy is to analyze the structural evolution ofthis global system, an evolution spanning more than five centuries; the genius of the work rests inthe distinctive approach that Arrighi takes. At the core of his approach is the identification ofthose long-term trends and accreted characteristics - one might call them "systemiccontradictions" - that promise to send the world capitalist geo-economy in a radically differentdevelopmental direction as US hegemony wanes. Arrighi 's assessment of these contradictionscompel him to make a provocative suggestion: in all likelihood, no singular concentration of stateand economic power possesses the territorial scale or the organizational capacities required tolead the global system through another round of restructuring and expansion. Properly framed,this illuminating insight could serve as the starting point for a theoretical exploration of thesocio-ecological constraints to global capitalist reproduction, but such is a journey (mostly) nottaken by Arrighi in The Long Twentieth Century. In fact, to the degree that he subsequentlycontemplates the prospect of a China-centered reconstitution of the world geo-economy, Arrighimarginalizes the question of global systemic contradictions altogether.

What a difference a year makes. While Giovanni Arrighi's Adam Smith in Beijing is a complicated tapestry, threaded with multiple strands and sub-themes, if it offers any single master thesis, it is this: over the last four or so decades, the fading of US primacy and China's precipitous ascent are dialectically interconnected, structured processes abetting one another. And, for good measure: China's ascent just might culminate in the formation of a qualitatively novel, world community of market-linked states orbiting around East Asia, but without a dominant center (pp. 7-9). Were I putting together this review in mid-2008, I would express profound skepticism about both theses. Certainly, such skepticism would issue not from the conviction that US global power is invincible, but rather from an evidence-based belief that Arrighi habitually underestimates the extent to which China's ongoing rise in the world order will be traumatically disrupted by the inevitable wipeout of highly leveraged paper assets on Wall Street (and the City of London, for that matter). Well, in the wake of the planetary financial crisis and economic slump, the early returns on China's coping capacity are in. The ways in which China is responding to and weathering the storm vindicate more than a few of the claims and insights Arrighi advances in Adam Smith in Beijing, including some that I would have regarded with raised eyebrows a year ago. The thrust of this review is a critical assessment of Adam Smith in Beijing from the standpoint of how well or poorly its theoretical maneuvers and key arguments allow us to make sense of the current shake-up in the global system, with a focus on the interdigitated destinies of China and the US. In this evaluation I will take a page out of Arrighi's own playbook and try to bear in mind the crucial distinction between geo-economic and geopolitical ebbs and flows of the moment and longer-term hegemonic ruptures and transformations.

This paper evaluates Peter Gowan's musings on the topic of a U.S.-centered "capitalist world-empire." Gowan's heterodox concept of a "capitalist world-empire" is intellectually defensible. And his claim that U.S. hegemony is historically unique, because unlike previous dominant powers the U.S. has been able to distinctly mold the accumulation regimes and security environments of its would-be rivals in the core, is more than convincing. However, Gowan tends to overstate the degree to which the U.S. in the 1990's enjoyed a productive sector revival, rather than a mere super-inflation of dollar-denominated assets. This tendency prevents him from anticipating just how summarily the U.S. would ditch consensual approaches to managing the capitalistworld-economy once the Wall Street bubble collapsed, and hence from appreciating just how fed up Western European and East Asian elites would become with the predatory character of U.S. hegemony in decay. In conclusion the paper argues that while the U.S. may have neither the resources nor the credibility to politically control the global division of labor, something akin to a U.S.-East Asian geo-economic bloc may be in the process of forming. This is so because the Chinese and Japanese economic growth models remain wedded to the underwriting of the U.S.' seigniorage privileges', and because past and present frictions between China and Japan stand in the way of tighter Sino-Japanese political coordination.

This article discusses the effects that "Vision 2000," a major expansion plan for the Port of Oakland (CA), has had on the neighborhood of West Oakland. It is noted that the West Oakland Neighbors (WON), a grassroots organization formed to fight the project, was the lone dissenting voice among Bay Area environmental NGOs. The group managed to gain concessions that included an air pollution mitigation package & the rerouting of the rebuilt Cypress Freeway around the neighborhood. Although these are considered impressive achievements, it is argued that they also helped lay the groundwork for the gentrification of the neighborhood, which will eventually force most of the poorer tenant population to leave West Oakland. It is conceded that the extent to which these developments helped trigger the gentrification process cannot be established with any certitude; however, it is certain that the new residents, more affluent & less African American, will reap the benefits of cleaner air & quieter streets that WON fought so hard for. J. Paul