The President’s newly instituted policy of “The Pivot to Asia” revives the classical geopolitical debate of the “Great Game,” or the struggle for dominance or a viable balance of power within the Greater Eurasian Supercontinent of the 19th Century, led at that time on the one hand by the “Heartland School” following the works of Sir Halford Mackinder, the father of Geopolitical Theory, asserting the strategic advantage of the Eurasian continental heartland, expressed in his “The Geographical Pivot of History” and his “Democratic Ideals and Reality,” focusing on the concept of Central Eurasia as the fulcrum and “Pivot” of world history, and the countervailing theories of Admiral Alfred Mahan, leader of the “Rimland, or Sea Power School”  as asserted in his classic geopolitical work “The Influence of Sea Power on World History.”

The immense and looming challenge of the  “Rise of China” has forced the Intelligence community to revisit and rethink these concepts. For the first time in three centuries the West has been forced to contemplate the potential scenario of a world order of power in which it may very plausibly be dethroned from the assumed dominance of the Eurasian and Global Balance of Power, a new version of a hitherto unthinkable Neo-Splenglerian  “Unterganng des Abendlandes/Decline of the West.”

The novel Spiritus Mundi by author Robert Sheppard has explored these concepts in depth in a fictional depiction of a World War III crisis arising from a Pearl Harbor-like sneak attack of a clandestine “New Axis” alliance of the dissatisfied rising powers China, Russia and Iran, bent on rejecting and permanently altering the status quo through a knockout blow severing the West’s Oil Jugular by seizing the immense oil and energy reserves of the Shia Crescent.

Below is an excerpt from the novel in which “C,” the head of British MI6 interacts with Admiral Orwell, the American DNI, or Director of National Intelligence, overseeing the CIA under President Barret Osama, exploring these concepts and the ultimate future role of NATO in Eurasia during a crisis on the Korean Peninsula in which the Russians and Chinese intervene to occupy North Korea as the common action of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in conjunction with the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) upon the implosion of the North Korean regime to forstall an American and South Korean invasion under their OPLAN 5029 to seize North Korea’s nuclear arsenal: 

See Also: To Read Geopolitical and World War Three Excerpts from Spiritus Mundi: https://spiritusmundigeopoliticalworldwar3.wordpress.com/

The New Great Game and the Dance of the Two Pivots: The New Eurasian Ultimate Mission of NATO in the 21st Century

“What is the status of the American and South Korean forces?” asked C.

               “The American Forces are at full alert, and we have air and naval reinforcements being tasked into the area. The South Koreans are partially mobilized and we are putting them on notice and on full alert.” replied the DNI.

               “We don’t have anything in area militarily but we are ready to back you up diplomatically and logistically. We have our NATO presence to the Russian West of course. Have you determined what line of response you are going to take?” queried C.

               “We are still talking it over with the President.” replied Orwell.  Orwell, a retired Admiral and former commander of the US fleet and combined forces in the Pacific was, like the majority of the top men at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, from a military background. This reflected a shift of power from the CIA to the Pentagon under the old administration and during the Iraq intervention. Orwell himself, however had been named as new DNI during the transition by the new administration of President Barret Osama, the nation’s first minority President and considerably more liberal in sympathies than the former administration. Though in office for a considerable period the new team had yet to formulate its posture on many aspects of policy.

               Admiral Orwell was deeply worried about the developing crisis on the Korean peninsula. In his studies at Annapolis on the geopolitical dimension of military power he had been influenced by two classical books, the works of Sir Halford Mackinder, the father of Geopolitical Theory, on the strategic advantage of the Eurasian continental heartland, including his “The Geographical Pivot of History” and his “Democratic Ideals and Reality,” focusing on the concept of Central Eurasia as the fulcrum and “Pivot” of world history, and the countervailing theories of Admiral Alfred Mahan in The Influence of Sea Power on World History.

Up to recently he had always viewed Mackinder’s theories as deeply flawed in asserting that whoever dominated the vital mid-region of Central Eurasia would ultimately dominate Eurasia as a whole, and thereby, by virtue of the great preponderance of population and resources of Eurasia as a whole (constituting 75% of the world’s population, 60% of its GDP and 75% of its energy resources), come to dominate the world, just as the opening moves of a chess strategy are inevitably focused on control of the strategic central squares of the board and their domination of the most vital lines of communication.

He had always hitherto considered that Admiral Mahan had adequately refuted that vague hypothesis by the counterthesis that in fact the sea lanes surrounding Eurasia were in fact the vital arteries of commerce and military communications, thus supporting the hypothesis of the continued vitality of the British Empire, which “Ruled the Waves” and the primary thoroughfares of modern capitalism and industrialization. He had always considered Mackinder’s hypothesis as the ravings of an armchair geopolitician fantasizing over a world map and falsely converting it into the gameboard of a chessgame, ignoring the technological, economic and transportational realities.

Now however, with the proliferation of new railways, roads, nation-states and pipelines across Eurasia’s heartland along the old “Silk Road” from China to India, Iran, Turkey and on to Europe the means of communication of the Eurasian heartland were becoming a new reality, and that space on the map less of a communicationsless terra incognita or endless tract of wasteland than in preceding centuries. Now he was beginning to fear that Mackinder’s ravings, linked to the British-Tsarist Russian “Great Game,” were not invalid but merely one or two centuries premature, and that NATO’s mission would need to be extended from focus only on the European-Russian divide to the whole Eurasian SuperTheater from London to Beijing to Tokyo.

And the depletion of the world’s oil reserves made the entire world, not only Eurasia, increasingly dependent on control of this oil-rich heartland. He felt, just as the expansion of the railroads and industrial cities across Europe had set the stage for creating the “cockpit of Europe” which bred World Wars I and II, thus the development of the rail, road, and oil &gas pipelines across the Eurasian heartland was creating a new geopolitical space and power vacuum which would inevitably draw the major players, NATO & the EU, China, Russia, India and Japan into conflict over a new balance of power to maintain its stability and equilibrium, creating a new “Cockpit of Eurasia” as the focus and fulcrum of the global balance of power.

NATO’s primary mission would thereby be shifted inevitably eastward towards the balance of power across the newly consolidated continent of “Greater Eurasia” stretching all the way across to China and Japan, probably taking in new cooperative alliances with Japan and Korea to the East and India to the south, depending of course on the nature of China’s militarization and rise, the direction in which Russia would flip and the use of India as a counterweight to China’s rising power.  He feared that, just as the rising power of Nineteenth Century, Germany, had sought a “New Deal” of the cards of the balance of power through creation of a “Central Axis,” so would the rising power China seek to create a new continental “Triple Axis” of China, Russia and Iran with their immense populations and industrial resources, for the domination of the larger and ultimate playing field, Eurasia as a whole from its central lines of communication.

He feared his own President’s recent “Pivot to Asia” policy might be too late in anticipating the “New Axis Pivot” of potential hegemony over all of Eurasia along the lines of Mackinder. Our Pivot may already have been “Outpivoted” by the Axis Pivot, he had written in an article in Foreign Affairs, “The New Great Game and the Dance of the Two Pivots: The New Eurasian Ultimate Mission of NATO in the 21^st Century.” He also knew intuitively that in the great chessgame between the great land powers, China, the European Union, Russia, India, and Iran, and the great sea powers, the United States, Britain & NATO and Japan, the conversion of the chessgame into a three-dimensional chessgame by the additional overlay of airpower and other aspects of high technology would be decisive, though not absolutely if the balance of airpower between the blocs could be neutralized short of absolute air supremacy.

 He also feared the American people’s latent weakness for isolationism and their infantilke impatience and short time-horizons, which mindset might not be entirely irrational, given McArthur’s warnings against the horrors of any American involvement in a “Landwar in Asia” for which its strengths were not suited,  let alone George Washington’s farewell admonition to “avoid foreign entanglements.”  He also knew that the continental European Union would not have the luxury of pretending any isolation from the Brave New World of newly integrated Eurasian geopolitics and would be forced to face the new threats squarely and grimly.

Britain, as ever would be caught in the middle, as an island but not a continent, and only a Chunnel’s length from the shores of Eurasia instead of an ocean’s span. It would have to decide whether to throw its weight solidly into the fray through the EU and NATO, or revert back to the game of “Perfidious Albion” acting as the spoiler in pursuit of a balance of power on the continent, now a newly integrated Eurasian continent rather than a European one alone, which would exclude the possibility of any power rising to full dominance and control of that immensity, neither Napoleon nor Hitler nor something new, spelling the ultimate doom of Britannia’s freedom and independence. Perhaps in another century NATO as a whole would have to play the role of Perfidious Albion, fomenting divisions and conflicts, in forestalling the rise of any single dominant newly industrialized power over the Eurasian Supercontinent that might threaten Western Europe and the EU as a whole.  He began to fear that these new Chinese-Russian moves on the Korean peninsula were merely the opening moves of the greater chessgame for all Eurasia, a kind of Bishop’s Opening to the diagonal corner of the board aimed far deeper in time and space towards a later strategic showdown at its center.

     
       
   Admiral Orwell was also influenced by his namesake, George Orwell, all of whose works he had read as a boy curious about his family name, and his prediction in 1984 of the evolution of three spheres of influence, Oceania, Eurasia and East Asia, submerged in a dystopian world of perpetual war and political domination centered on the balance of power across the Eurasian Continent as a whole, with its energies diverted in times of stalemate into peripheral wars in Africa, the Middle-East and the nether regions. Though he had learned that this most famous Orwell was not a true Orwell, but merely the pen name of a Blair, which he had pointed out with a shared laugh once to the British Prime Minister of that name, his vision continued to haunt him and challenge his native American optimism in the times of his maturity.

Indeed, in these times of financial crisis he sensed a new malaise and loss of confidence hinting that America’s youthful strength and pluck were withering and succumbing to a premature senility or foreboding of a looming decline and doom, and that a new edition and Zeitgeist era of the “Decline of the West”—-Spengler’s pessimistic Untergang des Abendlandes, which he had read in the German original at Annapolis, was setting in, with a new “Rising Sun” in the East.

      
   
      He also recalled the curious “mano-a-mano” academic contest he had had with Minister Luo ChunWang, now the head of Chinese Intelligence, when the latter had been a Professor at the University of International Relations in Beijing, closely tied to the Chinese MSS, and Orwell had been a Professor at the National Defense University at Fort McNair outside of Washington, D.C. Orwell had advocated the position of Admiral Mahan in a reformulated and revitalized way, stressing the importance of Sea Power in the control of the Eurasian Supercontinent, citing such facts as China’s 90% dependence on sea transport for its ever-growing oil imports, which now stood at over 60% of its total oil consumption. He argued that a domineering risen China could still be brought to its knees, just as Japan had been in World War II, by cutting its oil jugular from the sea. Thus he advocated a “Pivot Back to Asia” focused on the “Eurasian Rimlands,” or the coastal areas of Eurasia—Europe, India, Singapore, Vietnam, the Philippines and Indonesia, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea—forming what critics called, he thought slightly inaccurately, “The Fortress Oceania Strategy,” also making reference to his namesake Orwell’s 1984 Superpower, Oceania, of which Britain constituted only “Airstrip One.” This built upon the American and NATO technological superiority which made its dominance of the sea environment more secure than the continental land environment in which sheer masses and numbers might prevail in the absence of clear air supremacy on either side, and followed McArthur’s invocation for the West to avoid “A Land War in Asia.”

Thus in the contest of the academic “schools” of the time, Admiral Orwell had been type-cast as the global intellectual leader of the “Neo-Mahanian School” of the Eurasian Power Balance. Professor Luo ChunWang, from his seat in the Beijing institute, had been cast as his foil in the role of the “Neo-Mackinder School,” more affectionately termed the “Neo-Heartland Theory,” arguing that with the full development of the Eurasian transport, rail, road and energy pipeline system along the former “Silk Road” that the Eurasian Supercontinent was ripe for a centralized integration and that while Mackinder had been premature and inaccurate in his own time, that the time was now ripe for a “Central Axis” to effectively dominate a Eurasia weaned from its dependence and vulnerability upon vulnerable sea lanes. He who controls the Central Eurasia of the Silk Road and its new oil and cross-continental transportation resources controls “The Heartland,” “The World Island of Eurasia,” and eventually, by preponderance of masses of energy, resources and population, controls the world.

Thus in the emotional exchange of newspaper articles over China’s dispute with Japan over the DiaoYu/Senkaku Islands Luo accused America of pursuing a “Fortress Oceania Strategy” which would turn Japan into a mere geopolitical stooge and pawn as a “Neo-Orwellian Airstrip Two,” paralleling the role of Britain as a subservient “Airstrip One” in the opposite half of the Eurasian Supercontinent, mocking the name of his opponent in the press, Admiral Orwell. Such strategy, he argued, was doomed to failure as any attempt at “containment” or “encirclement” of China or Sino-Eurasia would, following the “Law of Unintended Consequences,” give rise to a “New Central Axis” integrated across the “Eurasian Heartland” by land and by seizure of energy dominance via land pipelines, would break the myth of the Mahanian dominance of Sea Power and the Eurasian Rimland. Now Admiral Orwell, facing Luo as the dominant strategist of his rising nation was forced to re-examine his own position with painful self-criticism.

   
   
         These were the unsettling thoughts which moved in the deeper spaces of Admiral Orwell’s consciousness as he went through the more active crisis-driven and bureaucratic process of shuttling between his President and his NATO allies and counterparts.

For Further Introduction to the novel Spiritus Mundi, by Robert Sheppard see the following:

Introducing Spiritus Mundi, a Novel by Robert Sheppard

Author’s E-mail: rsheppard99_2000@yahoo.com

Related Links and Websites: Spiritus Mundi, Novel by Robert Sheppard

For Introduction and Overview of the Novel: https://spiritusmundinovel.wordpress.com/

To Read Geopolitical and World War Three Excerpts from Spiritus Mundi: https://spiritusmundigeopoliticalworldwar3.wordpress.com/

For Updates on the Upcoming Movie Version of the Novel, Spiritus Mundi & Casting of Actors and Actresses for Leading Roles See: https://robertalexandersheppard.wordpress.com/

For Author’s Blog: https://robertalexandersheppard.wordpress.com//

To Read Abut the Occupy Wall Street Movement in Spiritus Mundi:  http://occupywallstreetnovel.wordpress.com/

To Read a Sample Chapter from Spiritus Mundi: https://spiritusmundisamplechapters.wordpress.com/

To Read Fantasy, Myth and Magical Realism Excerpts from Spiritus Mundi: https://spiritusmundifantasymythandmagicalrealism.wordpress.com/

To Read Sexual Excerpts from Spiritus Mundi: The Varieties of Sexul Experience: https://spiritusmundivarietiesofsexualexperience.wordpress.com/

To Read Spy, Espionage and Counter-terrorism Thriller Excerpts from Spiritus Mundi: http://spiritusmundispyespionagecounterterrorism.wordpress.com/

To Read Geopolitical and World War Three Excerpts from Spiritus Mundi: https://spiritusmundigeopoliticalworldwar3.wordpress.com/

To Read Spiritual and Religious Excerpts from Spiritus Mundi: https://spiritusmundionspiritualityandreligion.wordpress.com/

To Read about the Global Campaign for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly in Spiritus Mundi: https://spiritusmundiunitednationsparliamentaryassembly.wordpress.com/

To Read Poetry from Spiritus Mundi：https://spiritusmundipoetry.wordpress.com/

For Discussions on World Literature and Literary Criticism in Spiritus Mundi: http://worldliteratureandliterarycriticism.wordpress.com/

For Discussions of World History and World Civilization in Spiritus Mundi: https://worldhistoryandcivilizationspiritusmundi.wordpress.com/

To Read the Blog of Eva Strong from Spiritus Mundi: https://evasblogfromspiritusmundi.wordpress.com/

To Read the Blog of Andreas Sarkozy from Spiritus Mundi: http://andreasblogfromspiritusmundi.wordpress.com/

To Read the Blog of Yoriko Oe from Spiritus Mundi: http://yorikosblogfromspiritusmundi.wordpress.com/

To Read the Blog of Robert Sartorius from Spiritus Mundi: http://sartoriusblogfromspiritusmundi.wordpress.com/

ON SPIRITUS MUNDI  

“Read Robert Sheppard’s sprawling, supple novel, Spiritus Mundi, an epic story of global intrigue and sexual and spiritual revelation. Compelling characters, wisdom, insight, and beautiful depictions of locations all over the world will power you through the book. You’ll exit wishing the story lines would go on and on.” May 13, 2012

Robert McDowell, Editor, Writer, Marketer, Editorial Cra, The Nature of Words

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“Robert Sheppard’s novel, “Spiritus Mundi,” has everything. “Spiritus Mundi” is Latin, meaning “spirit” or “soul of the world.” According to the Norton Anthology of English Literature, the phrase refers to “the spirit or soul of the universe” with which all individual souls are connected through the “Great Memory.” This amazing novel is all inclusive and unceasingly riveting. If you are interested in politics, philosophy, human relationships, sex, intrigue, betrayal, poetry and even philosophy — buy and read “Spiritus Mundi”!”November 18, 2012

Raymond P. Keen, School Psychologist, Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DODDS)

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“Robert Sheppard’s new novel “Spiritus Mundi” is a new twist on a well-loved genre. Robert leaves no stone unturned in this compelling page turner you’ll experience mystery, suspense, thrills, and excitement. Robert touches on sexuality and spirituality in such a way that the reader is compelled to ask themselves “what would you do if faced with these trials?” Robert is a master at taking the reader out of their own lives and into the world he created. If you’re looking for a “can’t put down” read pick up Spiritus Mundi!” May 20, 2012

Nicole Breanne, Content Coordinator, Ranker.com
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“Longing for a thrilling experience of the sexual and spiritual world? Expecting a thorough summoning of your inner heart? Aspiring to find an extraordinary voice to enlighten your understanding heart? Then you can’t miss this extraordinary novel, Spiritus Mundi by Robert Sheppard. The author will spirit you into a exciting world filled with fantasy, myth, conflicts and wisdom from a fresh perspective. Don’t hesitate, just turn to the 1st page and start out enjoying this marvellous journey.”November 17, 2012

Alina Mu Liu, Official Interpreter, Editor & Translator, HM Courts & Tribunal Service, London UK & the United Nations

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“Robert Sheppard’s Spiritus Mundi is a literary novel for those with an extensive vocabulary, and who believe how you tell a story is as important as what occurs in it. It is as current as today’s headlines.

Jaime Martinez-Tolentino, Writer” November 19, 2012

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“Robert Sheppard’s exciting new novel, Spiritus Mundi, is an unforgettable read and epic journey of high adventure and self-discovery across the scarred landscape of the modern world and into the mysteries beyond. Its compelling saga reveals the sexual and spiritual lives of struggling global protesters and idealists overcoming despair, nuclear terrorism, espionage and a threatened World War III to bring the world together from the brink of destruction with a revolutionary United Nations Parliamentary Assembly and spiritual rebirth. This modern epic is a must read and compelling vision of the future for all Citizens of the Modern World and a beacon of hope pointing us all towards a better world struggling against all odds to be born.” May 19, 2012

Lara Biyuts, Reviewer and Blogger at Goodreads.com and Revue Blanche

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“Robert Sheppard’s “Spiritus Mundi” is a book of major importance and depth. A must read for any thinking, compassionate human being living in these perilous times. I highly recommend this powerful testament of the current course of our so-called life on his planet. April 25, 2012

Doug Draime Writer, Freelance

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“This new novel ‘Spiritus Mundi’ brings together history, politics, future society, and blends with a plausible World War Three scenario. I have read it and find it over the top fascinating. I am very glad to see Robert share his creativity with the world through this work of fiction, and know it will be a huge hit.” April 28, 2012

Jim Rogers, Owner and Director, AXL

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“Robert Sheppard is an exceptional thinker! His work should be read and made the subject of critical study.”May 26, 2012

Georgia Banks-Martin, Editor, New Mirage Journal

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“This novel rocks the reader with its supple strength. You want to say “No, No,” and you end up saying, “Maybe.” Political science fiction at its highest, most memorable level.”November 17, 2012

Carl Macki, Owner, Carl Macki Social Media

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 “Robert Sheppard’s Novel Spiritus Mundi confronts politics and philosophies of the world. He’s examined multiple layers of personality in his characters; male, female, Chinese, Arab, English, and American melding them into a story of possible outcomes. How else can I convey the intelligent presentation of fiction woven with sensitivity to our world’s governments, religious influences and sectarian principles? We must not forget the influence of a largely secular world. Robert tirelessly checked, rechecked and triple checked his resources in order to bring a fiction of occurrence, and psychological impact as set forth in his novel Spiritus Mundi.”November 18, 2012

Glenda Fralin, Author, Organization NWG

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“Robert was one of my best guests. His novel is as wide ranging as are his interests and expertise. He can explain his various ideas with great clarity and he does this with compassion. Novel is worthwhile reading.”November 18, 2012

Dr. Robert Rose, Radio Show Host, http://www.blogtalkradio.com/icdrrose

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I write to introduce to your attention my double novel Spiritus Mundi, consisting of Spiritus Mundi, the Novel—Book I, and Spiritus Mundi, the Romance—Book II. Book I’s espionage-terror-political-religious thriller-action criss-crosses the globe from Beijing to London to Washington, Mexico City and Jerusalem presenting a vast panorama of the contemporary international world, including compelling action, deep and realistic characters and surreal adventures, while Book II dialates the setting and scope into a fantasy (though still rooted in the real) adventure where the protagonists embark on a quest to the realms of Middle Earth and its Crystal Bead Game and through a wormhole to the Council of the Immortals in the Amphitheater in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy in search of the crucial Silmaril Crystal, and to plead for the continuance of the human race in the face of threatened extinction from a nuclear World War III, all followed by a triple-somersault thriller ending in which a common garden-variety terrorist attack is first uncovered by MI6 and the CIA as the opening gambit a Greatpower Game of States threatening World War III and then, incredibly, as the nexus of a Time Travel conspiracy involving an attempt by fascist forces of the 23rd Century to alter a benign World History by a time-travelling raid on their past and our present to provoke that World War III, foiled by the heroic efforts of the democratic 23rd Century world government, the Senate of the United States of Earth, to hunt down the fascist interlopers before their history is irrevocably altered for evil.

When activist Robert Sartorius, leading a global campaign to create a European Parliament-style world-wide United Nations Parliamentary Assembly presses the proposal in New York on his old friend the UN Secretary-General and is rebuffed due to the hostile pressure of the conservative American administration, his Committee resolves to fight back by launching a celebrity-driven Bono-Geldof-Band Aid/Live 8-style “People Power” media campaign and telethon spearheaded by rock superstars Isis and Osiris and former UN Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali to mobilize global public support and pressure in alliance with the Occupy Wall Street Movements worldwide. The Blogs of Sartorius, activist Eva Strong and Committee Chairman Andreas Sarkozy reveal the campaign’s working struggle, their tangled love affairs, a loss of faith, attempted suicide, reconciliation of father and son after divorce, and recovery of personal love and faith.

Things fall apart as the idealists’ global crusade is infiltrated by a cell of jihadist terrorists using it as a cover, then counter-infiltrated by CIA agent Jack McKinsey and British MI6 agent Etienne Dearlove. A cat-and-mouse game of espionage and intrigue ensues pitting them against the Chinese MSS espionage network allied with the Iranian Quds Force crossing Beijing, London, Moscow, Washington and Jerusalem unleashing an uncontrollable series of events which sees the American Olympic Track and Field Team bombed on an airplane in London, uncovers a secret conspiracy of China, Russia and Iran to jointly seize the oil reserves of the Middle-East, and witnesses Presidents Clinton and Carter taken hostage with Sartorius, McKinsey, Eva and other activists at a Jerusalem telethon rally cut short by the explosion of a concealed atomic device in a loaned Chinese Terracotta Warrior, then flown by capturing terrorists to Qom, Iran as “human shields” to deter a retaliatory nuclear attack.

In Book II, Spiritus Mundi, the Romance they encounter Iran’s Supreme Leader in Qom as the world teeters on the brink of nuclear confrontation and World War III, while mysterious events unfold leading Sartorius and McKinsey from their captivity in the underground nuclear facilities of Qom into a hidden neo-mythic dimension that takes them to a vast ocean and land at the center of the world, Middle Earth, Inner Shambhala, and to involvement in a mysterious Castalian “Crystal Bead Game” linked to the destiny of the human race on earth. They then embark on a quest for the Silmaril, or Missing Seed Crystal to the central island of Omphalos in the Great Central Sea in the middle of the globe, aided by Goethe, the Chinese Monkey King, Captain Nemo, the African God-Hero Ogun, and a Sufi mystic they traverse a ‘wormhole’ at the center of the earth guarded by ‘The Mothers’ and the fallen angel tribe of the Grigori (Genesis 6:1-4) which leads the way to critical meeting of the “Council of the Immortals” at the Black Hole in the center of the Milky Way Galaxy to determine the final fate of the human species. The heroes battle and overcome the treacherous opposition of Mephisto and his satanic subaltern Mundus through their Underworld and Otherworld adventures and successfully plead the cause of the continuation of the human species before the Immortals, returning with the critical Silmaril Crystal, resolving the Crystal Bead Game and thereby inspiring through the Archangel Gabriel a dream in the mind of Iran’s Supreme Leader which brings a new Revelation causing him to release the hostages and an end the crisis. China and Russia stand down from aiding Iran in seizing the Mid-East oil reserves, but in a treacherous blow the Chinese instead utilize their forward-positioned armies to attack their former ally Russia and seize Siberia with its large oil and gas reserves instead. President Barret Osama, America’s newly-elected first black President then invites Russia, Japan and South Korea to join NATO and together they succeed in expelling the Chinese from Siberia and usher in a new Eurasian and global balance of power and a New World Order.

Rock Superstar Osiris meanwhile, after undertaking a narcissistic Messianic mission in the wake of the Jerusalem atomic blast is dramatically assassinated on live world-wide television on Jerusalem’s Via Dolorosa by a disillusioned follower. His wife and rock-star partner Isis then leads a spiritual movement to reconcile and unite the clashing religions and catalyze a common global spiritual Renaissance through a Global Progressive Spiritual Alliance which seeks to construct an Inter-faith Temple on the ruins of the atomic blast in Jerusalem. In counter-reaction to the cataclysmic events the world finally implements Sartorius’ crusade for a United Nations Parliamentary Assembly, but not before Sartorius has himself has died, Moses-like of a heart attack while helping to foil a metaconspiracy mediated by Time Travel in which a fascist agent from the 23rd Century who has time-transited back to our time to alter a benign history by causing WWIII and thus preventing the evolution of a democratic world government, the United States of Earth, which follows him through time and nabs him just in the “nick of time” to prevent Aramgeddon. The book ends with the opening ceremony of the UN Parliamentary Assembly which is attended in Sartorius’ name by his widow Eva Strong, whom Sartorius had fallen in love with and married in the course of the novel, and by their son Euphy, newborn after Sartorius’ death. They are joined in cinematic climax at the ceremony by newly chosen UN Secretary-General Clinton, President Osama and UN Parliamentary Assembly Committee Chairman Andreas Sarkozy who have just received the Nobel Peace Prize for their work in creation of the world’s first world parliamentary assembly within the United Nations, bringing together the representative voices of the peoples of the world in face-to-face assembly and dialogue for the first time in world history.

Highlights:

All the Highlights of the novel cannot be contained in such a short Introduction, but a few of them would include:

1. Spiritus Mundi is the first novel in world history to portray the creation of a United Nations Parliamentary Assemblyon the working model, inter alia, of the European Parliament and the first novel to portray the Occupy Wall Street Movement and related movements worldwide;

2. Spiritus Mundi is a prophetic geo-political WWIII novel of the near future forseeing a conflict and conspiratorial surprise attack by a resurgent “Axis” of China, Russia and Iran seeking by a decisive blow in jointly seizing the Middle-East oil fields to radically alter the global balance of power vis-a-vis the West in the world and Eurasia. Like Clancy’s The Bear and the Dragon, it forsees the inclusion of Russia in NATO, and goes far beyond in forseeing the inclusion of South Korea and Japan, following a joint Chinese-Russian occupation of a collapsing North Korea and the Axis strike at the Middle-Eastern oil fields;

3. Spiritus Mundi is an exciting espionage thriller involving the American CIA. British MI6, the Chinese MSS, or Ministry of State Security and the Russian SVR contending in a deul of intrigue and espionage;

4. Spiritus Mundi is a Spellbinding Terrorism/Counterterrorism novel involving a global plot to conceal an atomic bomb in a Chinese Teracotta Warrior to be detonated in Jerusalem;

5. Features the romantic and sexual searching and encounters of dozens of idealist activists, rock-stars, CIA and MI6 agents, public-relations spinmeisters and billionaires with a detour into the bi-sexual and gay scenes of Beijing, New York, California, London and Tokyo:

6. Establishes and grounds the new genre of the Global Novel written in Global English, the international language of the world,

7. Spiritus Mundi is a novel of Spiritual Searching featuring the religious searching of Sufi mystic Mohammad ala Rushdie, as well as the loss of faith, depression, attempted suicide and recovery of faith in life of protagonist Sartorius. Follows bogus religious cult leaders and the Messiah-Complex megalomanic-narcissistic mission of rock superstar Osiris that leads to his dramatic assassination on worldwide television in Jerusalem, followed by the religious conversion of his wife and rock-star parner Isis;

8. Features the search for love and sexual fulfillment of Eva Strong, a deeply and realistically portrayed divorced single mother involved in the United Nations campaign, who reveals her tortured heart and soul in her Blog throughout several disastrous sexual affairs and ultimately through her final attainment of love and marriage to Sartorius;

9. Features Sartorius’ experience of a bitter divorce, alienation and reconciliation with his son, his loss of faith and attempted suicide, his battle against drugs and alcoholism, his surreal and sexual adventures in Mexico City, and his subsequent redeeming love and marriage to Eva Strong;

10. Contains the in–depth literary conversations of Sartorius and his best friend, Literature Nobel Laureate Günther Gross, as they conduct worldwide interviews and research for at book they are jointly writing on the emergence of the new institution of World Literature, building on Goethe’s original concept of “Weltliteratur” and its foundations and contributions from all the world’s traditions and cultures;

11. Predicts the emergence of the institution and quest of “The Great Global Novel” as a successor to the prior quest after “The Great American Novel” in the newer age of the globalization of literature in Global English and generally;

12. Features the cross-cultural experiences and search for roots, sexual and spiritual fulfillment and authenticity of Asian-American character Jennie Zheng, and Pari Kasiwar of India;

13. For the first time incorporates in the dramatic narrative flow of action the mythic traditions of all the cultures and literatures of the world, including such figures as Goethe, The Chinese Monkey King, the African God-Hero Ogun, surreal adventures in the ‘Theatro Magico’ in Mexico City bringing to life figures from the Mayan-Aztec Popul Vuh, Hanuman from the Indian classic the Ramayana, and many more;

14. Book Two, Spiritus Mundi, the Romance is a fantastic Fantasy, Myth and Magical Realism Rollercoaster Ride: The more mythic Book Two utilizes a Wellsian motif of Time Travel to explore the making of history and its attempted unmaking (a la Terminator) by a hositile raid from the future on the past, our present, and the foiling of the fascist attempt by an alliance of men and women of goodwill and courage from past, present and future generations united in a Commonwealth of Human Destiny; Like Thomas Pynchon’s Against the Day and Welles’ Journey to the Center of the Earth it involves a journey to an interior realm of the “Middle Earth;” it also contains a futuristic travel through a wormhole to the center of our Milky Way Galaxy for a meeting with the “Council of the Immortals” where the fate of the human race will be decided;

15. Is a fantastic read on a roller-coaster ride of high adventure and self-exploration!

C  Copyright 2013  Robert Sheppard  All Rights Reserved