Toward a Geopolitics of Hope purports a theory of a 'second world' which includes China and Russia amongst others, as a possible counter-weight to the first world up till now dominated by the United States of America. The authors argue that capitalism provides the common ideological context where the rivalry between the two 'worlds' is taking shape. In this sense, globalization and capitalism are no longer the steadfast allies of democracy as they have often claimed to be. They contend that this rivalry between the first and second world would soon engulf the third world, offering it two developmental options: the neo-liberal first way or the neo-authoritarian second way.