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Power Shift: China and Asia's New Dynamics

Edited by David Shambaugh
Reviewed by By Lucian W. Pye
May/June 2006
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Edited by David Shambaugh
University of California Press
2006
402 pp.
0674021576
$60.00

This is an exceptionally well-organized and clearly focused product of a scholarly conference on the rise of Chinese power and influence and what it means for developments in Asia and for U.S. interests. In his introductory chapter, Shambaugh identifies seven possible models of the power configurations that may be ahead for Asia. These are all relatively realistic models, and no time is wasted on the possibility that China will violently shake up the world system. The first substantive chapter addresses the impressive role China is playing in the world economy; it is followed by chapters analyzing China's political and diplomatic relations with its Asian neighbors. The final two chapters -- on the policy implications of China's rise for the United States -- arrive at somewhat different conclusions. Robert Sutter sees problems ahead for U.S.-Chinese relations, whereas David Lampton is more optimistic, believing that skilled diplomacy should be able to keep in check any major negative developments.

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