title: Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making
author: David Rothkopf
description: Starred Review. Books on world elites tend to focus on the superwealthy, but political scholar Rothkopf (<i>Running the World</i>) has written a serious and eminently readable evaluation of the superpowerful. Until recent decades, great-power governments provided most of the superclass, accompanied by a few heads of international movements (i.e., the pope) and entrepreneurs (Rothschilds, Rockefellers). Today, economic cloutfueled by the explosive expansion of international trade, travel and communicationrules. The nation state's power has diminished, according to Rothkopf, shrinking politicians to minority power broker status. Leaders in international business, finance and the defense industry not only dominate the superclass, they move freely into high positions in their nations' governments and back to private life largely beyond the notice of elected legislatures (including the U.S. Congress), which remain abysmally ignorant of affairs beyond their borders. The superelites' disproportionate influence over national policy is often constructive, but always self-interested. Across the world, the author contends, few object to corruption and oppressive governments provided they can do business in these countries. Neither hand-wringing nor worshipful, this book delivers an unsettling account of what the immense and growing power of this superclass bodes for the future. <i>(Mar.)</i> <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  ## [ACKNOWLEDGMENTS](winnerstandsalonethe_toc.html#ack_01)
  
  
  
  
  
  I could not possibly have written this book without the help of the many
  people who, whether openly or in confidence, gave me access to the information
  it contains. When I began my research, I never imagined that I would find so
  much of interest behind the façade of the world of glitz and glamour. Apart
  from the friends who have asked for their names not to be mentioned, I would
  like to thank Alexander Osterwald, Bernadette Imaculada Santos, Claudine and
  Elie Saab, David Rothkopf (the inventor of the term “Superclass”), Deborah
  Williamson, Fátima Lopes, Fawaz Gruosi, Franco Cologni, Hildegard Follon,
  James W. Wright, Jennifer Bollinger, Johan Reckman, Jörn Pfotenhauer, Juliette
  Rigal, Kevin Heienberg, Kevin Karroll, Luca Burei, Maria de Lourdes Débat,
  Mario Rosa, Monty Shadow, Steffi Czerny, Victoria Navaloska, Yasser Hamid, and
  Zeina Raphael, all of whom collaborated directly or indirectly in the writing
  of this boo