Order in Asia Beyond Power Transition: Understanding China's Rise, Changing International Roles and Grand Strategies

The possibility of war in East Asia has increased in 2017, mainly as a result of the heightened tensions between Washington and Beijing and the escalation of tensions on the Korean peninsula. This has made the risks of strategic miscalculation, and thus an ensuing outbreak of war in Asia, conceivable. Handling the rise of Chinaand what it means for other countrieswill be the single greatest challenge of the 21st century. The books reviewed in this article all ask important questions about the effects of China's rise on East Asia and its relationships with near and distant powers. Taken together, their added value is twofold: one, they return interactions and relationships to the analytical center stage of International Relations; two, they place China squarely at the center of contemporary IR theorizing.