"This book addresses the most important question in geopolitics today--the future of relations between the US and China. Concerned that the rise of China will challenge its hegemony in world affairs, the U.S. has decided to reassert its influence in Asia to counteract any challenge. Examining and challenging the dominant causal explanations for and professed intentions of this shift in US policy, this book uncovers the real dynamics of contemporary Sino-American relations, surveying their complex interactions in the context of their post-war history, offering the reader an accessible and informative survey of the relations between China and the US in Asia, ranging from Russia's turn to the east, the rise of Japanese nationalism, democracy in Myanmar, North Korea's nuclear programme to disputes in the South China Sea. This book is an illuminating introduction to the defining issue shaping global politics for our time"--
America's Pacific century? -- China : a doomed and distorted growth model? -- Can China rise peacefully? -- America's exceptional empire -- Russia : facing west or east -- The rise of Japanese nationalism -- The USS Taiwan? -- Korea : divided nation, divided allegiances -- Asia's Mediterranean -- Turbulent seas -- The courting of Vietnam -- Thailand and Myanmar : shifting loyalties -- Winning over India -- Tibet and the Sino-Indian borders -- Losing Central Asia -- The sword or the spirit?