14 August 2011

Aaron L. Friedberg, A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia

Aaron L. Friedberg, A Contest for Supremacy: China, America, and the Struggle for Mastery in Asia (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2011).

An explosive examination of the fast-escalating Sino-American struggle for geopolitical predominance.

There may be no denying China’s growing economic strength, but its impact on the global balance of power remains hotly contested. Political scientist Aaron L. Friedberg argues that our nation’s leaders are failing to act expeditiously enough to counter China’s growing strength. He explains how the United States and China define their goals and reveals the strategies each is now employing to achieve its ends. Friedberg demonstrates in this provocative book that the ultimate aim of Chinese policymakers is to “win without fighting,” displacing the United States as the leading power in Asia while avoiding direct confrontation. The United States, on the other hand, sends misleading signals about our commitments and resolve, putting us at risk for a war that might otherwise have been avoided. A much-needed wake-up call to U.S. leaders and policymakers, A Contest for Supremacy is a compelling interpretation of a rivalry that will go far to determine the shape of the twenty-first century.

Book Details

  • Hardcover
  • August 2011
  • ISBN 978-0-393-06828-3
  • 6.5 × 9.6 in / 360 pages

Aaron L. Friedberg is a professor of politics and international affairs at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School, where he has taught since 1987.

Friedberg has been a fellow at the Smithsonian Institution’s Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, the Norwegian Nobel Institute, and Harvard University’s Center for International Affairs, and has served as a consultant to several agencies of the U.S. government. In 2001-2002 he was the first holder of the Henry Alfred Kissinger Chair in Foreign Policy and International Relations at the Library of Congress. In 2003-2005 he served as a deputy assistant for National Security Affairs in the Office of the Vice President. After leaving government to return to Princeton University, Friedberg was named a member of the Defense Policy Board and the Secretary of State’s Advisory Committee on Democracy Promotion.

Friedberg, who earned his A.B., A.M., and Ph.D. from Harvard University, is the author of two other books, The Weary Titan, 1895-1905: Britain and the Experience of Relative Decline (Princeton University Press, 1988), which received the Edgar Furniss National Security Book Award; and In the Shadow of the Garrison State: America’s Anti-Statism and Its Cold War Grand Strategy (Princeton University Press, 2000). He blogs at ForeignPolicy.com.

Areas of Expertise:

  • International relations
  • International security
  • East Asia
  • Foreign/defense policy
  • Globalization
  • Political economy