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U.S. forecaster Peter Zeihan, a former geopolitical analyst with the security firm Stratfor, has spent his career trying to predict the future of tumultuous states — recently, he’s turned his gaze to North America. Now, his latest book,The Accidental Superpower, takes a bleak look at the direction of the world in general. Among his speculations, the future of Alberta in Canada. He spoke to thePost‘s Jen Gerson.

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QTell me about your book as a whole?

A The global system as we understand it is highly artificial. The United States created it after the Second World War to fight the Cold War. We introduced this concept of free trade that allowed anyone we were friendly with to trade with anyone else we were friendly with — the U.S. guaranteed the security of the oceans, it would open its markets, it would patrol the Middle East and make sure energy could get to where it needed to go. Before, you had competing empires fighting for resources and markets. The American system expanded peace and prosperity throughout the world in a way the human race had never experienced before. But we did it to contain the Soviet Union. Since the Cold War ended, the U.S. has been withdrawing from that system.