Pax Silica: The New Ruling Class explores the emergence of a new global order in which power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of a techno-capitalist elite. Robinson traces the rise of a "new capital complex" that brings big tech together with global finance and the military-industrial-repression complex. The chaos that now engulfs the world is driven by the predatory strategies of this complex as it seeks to seize markets, land, and resources needed for the AI revolution. In order to advance its interests, the complex is moving into alignment with authoritarian, dictatorial and fascist states as the tech and financial billionaires become global geopolitical actors. They are deeply invested in transnational systems of warfare, social control, repression and surveillance that are digitalized, automated, and embedded in the global economy and society. The new ruling class has concluded that the crisis of global capitalism can only be overcome by violently cracking open new spaces for accumulation, by transferring the cost of the crisis to the working classes, and by aligning states and political systems worldwide with its agenda. The consolidation of Pax Silica, Robinson argues, thus hinges on the ideological extremism and political warlordism of "Global Trumpism" and other ruling class mafias as the post-World War II international order crumbles and as geopolitical confrontation escalates. In this way, the economic totalitarianism that has come about over the past half century of neoliberalism and acute inequality is now translating into a political totalitarianism of a new type as the Pax Silica complex sets out to convert the chaos into new strategies for the accumulation of capital and power. Yet the fascist state remains embryonic. The ruling class is not omnipotent. Robinson sees great hope in the mass resistance movements and youth-led revolts that are proliferating around the world. These popular forces from below offer an alternative future, one based not on the domination of capital but on the needs of toiling majorities and the empowerment of working-class communities. If Pax Silica offers an urgent warning about a possible tragic future, it also provides a critical framework for understanding the global maelstrom and what it means for popular resistance and emancipatory struggles.

Global capitalism is facing an unprecedented crisis. The global economy is mired in prolonged stagnation. The worldwide social fabric is in decay. Civil strife and social upheaval are tearing up political systems and, in some cases, leading to the collapse of states. The planetary ecosystem is breaking down. Millions are fleeing, displaced by climate change, transnational corporate land grabs, wars and political persecution. How far into the future can global capitalism endure? In this urgent new study, sociologist William I. Robinson presents a “big picture” snapshot of the crisis of capitalism and the battle for the future of humanity. Drawing on 30 years of scholarship and activism, Robinson applies his original theory of global capitalism to the emerging digital age. He shows how global elites have pinned their hope on economic reactivation through the application of radical new digital technologies and financial strategies to the global economy and society. The rulers will turn to enhancing a global police state to contain mass rebellion as humanity enters a season of chaos and global civil war. The capitalist class and privileged strata of humanity may be able to survive collapse for decades to come even as a majority of humanity faces desperate struggles for survival that lead many to perish in the coming years. But there is eventually a terminal point to capitalist expansion as mass extinction and the radical alteration of the natural environment make life for our species and most others impossible. The only solution is a reversal of escalating inequalities through a radical redistribution of wealth and power downward as a first step in replacing the capitalist system, with its relentless pursuit of private profit at all cost, by an ecosocialism that prioritizes social need and harmony with the rest of nature. Theoretically sophisticated and engaging, this concise study will be satisfying to scholars yet accessible to a broader public concerned with the urgent political affairs of our day.