収束ゾーンでのライフ: Life in the Convergence Zone

authoritarianism, be it religious or secular, is exactly what large sections of the American public want

I've definitely noticed this as well. I think it's partially in response to the increasing rate of change of the world (oversimplified: Change leads to Fear, Authoritarianism promises Stability), and partly induced. It's the same principle as Marketing anything: create a need, and then sell them a product that seems to fill it, but leaves the actual desire unfulfilled and, if possible, exacerbated so that they're begging for even more of the same.

I put in a request for the van Creveld book from the Library. Thanks for the recommendation. My current viewpoint is pretty strongly influenced by When Corporations Rule the World, by David C. Korten, so I'm more sensitized to that side of things right now. It's from 1995 so some of it's kind of dated, but a number of his predictions have held up remarkably well.

I've been keeping half an eye on the EU since I was over in Germany in '04, and I think you're definitely on to something there. There seems to be increasingly more action going on above the level of the Nation-State as time goes on, and I think that might well be the start of a new paradigm in human organization.