"Here is a skillful navigation of the complementary forces of capitalism, nationalism and militarism which together form and sustain the power of nation states." -- Stuart Rees AM, University of Sydney Professor Emeritus, founding director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS) and the Sydney Peace Foundation This book is a study of the key components and contradictions of the escalating global crisis and their impact on modern Australia. It elaborates the damage being done to democracy, human rights, and the fabric of society. Racism is structured in the universality of the nation-state and capitalism in the 21st century. Racism is a process that discriminates and segregates the human species, creating major conflicts and antagonisms. It generates a global struggle for equality and social justice. The global crisis is energised by the contradiction between a global capitalism that is in effect totalitarian and the imperatives of economic growth driving every nation-state of the world. Racism is embodied in the emergence of a new imperialism to maintain Western global hegemony, a growing source of instability and violence in the world system, endangering the survival of humanity.

The book advocates the promotion of full democratic participation in the struggle for social, political, and economic equality. Erik Paul is a highly experienced lecturer and a widely published researcher specialising in Australia's relations with the Asia-Pacific and the US and issues of regional and world peace. His latest book is Australia in the US Empire (2018).