Balance of Power

I'm not a huge Thomas Friedman fan but I took note of this article because of the first paragraph, "It is hard to remember a time when more shifts in the global balance of power are happening at once". It appears that MANY things on this planet are happening at a pace that is unheard of at any other time in history. http://www.spiegel.de/international/0,1518,554479,00.html