The Post-American World (W.W. Norton, $25.95), by Fareed Zakaria, is a wise and succinct overview of the political changes in the world: the rise of China and India, especially, but of many other nations as well. Zakaria well understands that the United States is vitally important to world stability, but he says that we must play a different role, one involving consultation, cooperation, and compromise. Above all, we must stop “cowering in fear from the other.”