Fareed Zakaria, one of the most insightful and interesting writers on issues of general political importance to Americans, has recently written a follow up book to his last one, "The Future of Freedom.” The new book is called, "The Post American World.” Both books are outstanding and I would recommend them to anyone.

"The Post American World" is not so much about how America is diminishing as much as about how much the rest of the world is growing, and how that new growth and resultant power will affect Americans. Power is shifting from America as the unipolar power in the world towards a number of other countries becoming powers in their own right. Power is becoming shared, as opposed to predominately America-centered.

Zakaria points out that, in the last several decades, we have seen tremendous economic growth in the third world, and discusses some implications for the American economy and political reality.

Everyone by now is familiar with China, with the fact that all the pollution created there has not been for naught, as 400 million people have been brought out of poverty. Due to this new found wealth, China is now heading into a position where it has the ability to clean up its environment, and indeed is heading on a path to do so.

But the rest of the third world is growing too, in the last several years 124 countries grew at a rate of 4 percent a year or more, including 30 in Africa. In 1981 over 40 percent of the world’s people lived on $1 or less per day, and that is now down to 18 percent. In the next seven years it is expected to drop another third, to 12 percent. The fact is that the poor throughout most of the world are slowly being absorbed into a growing middle class.

The implications are mind boggling. We are beginning to see the possibility of one of the oldest dreams of humanity realized ... the worldwide end of poverty.

This has implications for everyone, including us here in Napa. What impact will this have on our economy, our job base, our population growth, immigration, even land use planning? That is where my mind turns as I read about this.

Here are some of my thoughts about what this portends.

One obvious implication is huge new markets will open for American products, wine in Napa’s case , with so many new consumers with the money to afford it. American products have a worldwide reputation as among the best and are highly desired. In China the most popular car is the Buick, and Napa wine is highly sought after.

It also means education and skills will increase in foreign working populations, and the ability to manufacture products will increase. This will put pressure on American businesses whose products can be outsourced to another country, a big expansion of what we have already seen.

Napa stands in an excellent position because the wine industry depends on a sense of place — where you grow the grapes is the most important marketing consideration in wine. The resulting tourism can’t be moved offshore, so  Napa is well positioned to compete in the emerging global marketplace.

The United States needs to be flexible to change with the times, as some industries that we have had in the past will most likely go away. By focusing on what we do uniquely and well, we will have a much larger market in those areas.

Politically we will continue to diminish in influence, and it will require us to work to form alliances with like-minded countries to accomplish our goals. If other countries are not dependent on us for their economies, they will be much less likely to accede to our political goals. Diplomacy will become even more key, and the bullying tactics of Bush/Cheney will result in ever diminishing returns.

Obama is striking what will prove to be a far more effective note by encouraging diplomacy and reaching out to others to work together. The Bush/McCain approach of macho tough talk is not going to get us there. Sharing power and working in alliances of shared interests will magnify powerful effects far beyond what the U.S acting on its own could ever do. The fact that no one country will carry the load will force everyone to work harder to cooperate, not just the U.S.

That is actually a good thing, because for too long we have carried the weight of the world on our shoulders, and now we are going to see the world carrying more of its own weight.

Zakaria also notes the actual long term trend of the Muslim world is moving away from support for terrorism. They want to modernize, and are gradually taking steps to do so.

Many of the Middle Eastern countries, including Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and more are booming economically, despite the Iraq war in their center. Al-Qaida, losing power, has turned to more localized attacks which has alienated the populations that may have otherwise supported them, like the Sunni’s in Iraq. As badly bungled by Bush as the Iraq war was, it is leading to a turning away from terrorism.

Power is starting to gravitate away from the American center and to spread around throughout the world, like it or not. If we keep our heads up and remain flexible, and move beyond trying to go back to an old world and old way of doing things, if we embrace the future it can be a fantastic one for both Napa and America.

Michael Haley is president of the Napa Valley Taxpayers Alliance. He writes a weekly blog/column for napavalleyregister.com. He can be reached at napaeagle@hughes.net.