Book Review Book Review Parag Khanna, Connectography: Mapping the Global Network Revolution. New York: Orion Publishing, 2016. $22.99 ISBN: 9781474604253 Reviewed by: Nikhilesh Dholakia, University of Rhode Island, Kingston, RI, USA Reviewed by: Masaaki Takemura, Meiji University, Japan DOI: 10.1177/0276146718755854 Although the paperback version of this book appears visually small, it is in reality a large book. Not only are there nearly 500 printed pages in the book, the data and information density is extremely high in two sets of special map pages that appear about 1/3 rd and 2/3 rd of the way into the book. These spe- cially printed pages have some fascinating geo-mapping dia- grams about how connected the contemporary world is, and the author provides a link to a site where larger images of these maps can be accessed. In this review, we provide a synopsis of, a critique regarding, and finally some concluding comments about Connectography. Synopsis and Core Argument This book follows similar themed works by Kenichi Ohmae (1999, 2002) about the interconnection of the EU-US-Japan triad, and books by Thomas Friedman (1999, 2005) about the increasing connections of emerging markets to the advanced economies. Hardt and Negri (2004) also write about dissolving political borders, but with a critical eye toward the tendency towards new forms of empire. Khanna, like Ohmae and Fried- man before him, is very optimistic and extols the practical value of economic wealth from a connected world. This book is organized in five parts and 16 chapters. In addition, the book has a prologue, a brief history of maps and cartography, and a conclusion. It useful to first provide a sum- mary of the five parts and other sections of the book. Entitled “Connectivity as destiny”, Part 1 of the book dis- cusses the new global movements encouraged by the new con- nected geography. These new connections have spawned and guided economically rational global supply chains through huge investment in infrastructure in the form of channels, tun- nels, railways, cables, pipelines, canals, cables and ports. These new connections can be described by a new lexicography that includes countries but also covers entities like cities, common- wealths, communities, and companies. These new entities com- pete with each other to spawn even more amazing boosts in investments for infrastructure (for competition of ports, see Hales et al. 2017). In Part 2 of the book, “Devolution as destiny”, Khanna presents many cases of new movements of seemingly opposite nature: devolution into small political entities, as also aggrega- tion into large cooperative geographical entities. Devolution is often for political-cultural reasons (such as Catalan and Basque regions of Spain) but also often happens in de facto manner in terms of semi-sovereignty of mega-cities. Devolution is driven by multiple forces: “Devolution rests on irrevocable trends: the spread of capitalism and markets, the growing breadth of trans- portation and communications, the universality of access to information, and the rise of popular movements for self-rule (p.64).” These smaller units, however, also recognize the func- tional logic of connections via supply chains, and realize the primacy of the economic integrative logic over the political logic of devolution or separation. Therefore, the opposite movement, aggregation, has also been occurring through infra- structure connectivity, economic integration, labor migration, political reconciliation, and similar fundamental trends. In the Indian subcontinent, the Grand Trunk Road, because of history of postcolonial partition and devolution, now lies in three separate countries – Pakistan, India and Bangladesh. This old link can be revived as the artery of the fertile Indo-Gangetic Plain by uniting the commercial linkages, water-sharing agree- ments, and efficient transportation. In Southeast Asia, the first president of Indonesia, Sukarno’s militaristic Konfrontasi pol- icy made it isolated from Malaysia and Singapore. Now, the leaders of these three countries emphasize their linkages of land, labor, and capital rather than their political borders. Similar movements are happening in Africa as well. Many of Africa’s interstate borderlines were not drawn to create cohe- sive societies, but were the result of the divide-and-rule lega- cies of colonialism. So far, many instances of civil wars and conflicts have been overcome through foreign investment and infrastructure development. Infrastructure is transforming Afri- ca’s map into what is should be. The Mideast countries were carved by 1916 Sykes-Picot and 1920 San Remo agreements. Even in this conflict-laced area, its natural map is described by many commercially oriented cities which link to Europe, be they Arabic, Turkic, Kurdish or Persian. Of course, it is well known that the connecting drivers in the Mideast are several gas, oil, and water pipelines. Part 3 of the book is on “Competitive connectivity”. Here, the author suggests “tug-of-war” as an appropriate strategy for establishing competitive advantages for a supply chain. The global tug-of-war is “about pulling the world’s supply chains toward oneself, to be the largest producer of resources and goods and gain the maximum share of value from transaction (p.138)”. To win the tug-of-war, it is important to manage the Journal of Macromarketing 1-3 ª The Author(s) 2018 Reprints and permission: sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav journals.sagepub.com/home/jmk