This Brave New World ─ India, China, and the United States

The US has the power to shape the geopolitical future of this century. We must stop obsessing about China alone and actively encourage India’s enormous potential to balance China’s power. India, China, and the US will be the twenty-first century’s dynamic triumvirate.

The axial shift of world power from the United States and Europe to China and India is unrelenting. By 2030, intelligence agencies estimate that Asia will surpass thecombined power of North America and Europe in economic might, population size, and military spending. From a front row seat Anja Manuel argues and demonstrates thatIndia has the assets and structure to grow democratically to full strength and balance the Chinese hegemony and aggression while it takes its proper place in leadership with India and the US.

In This Brave New World, Manuel takes the reader along on her business trips as she meets leaders and counts the assets and deficiencies of the two giant countries. India has a youthful, English-speaking population and democratic traditions, but it is inefficient, misogynist, and often corrupt. China has an aging population, no tradition of citizen rule, an ideological central government, and is ruthlessly expansionist. India’s democratic system slows it down; China’s centralized authority races it erratically. Balancing these giants is the key to a prosperous and open global system and America’s opportunity to maintain its world power.

In the present and near future the US’s aim should be to embrace the inevitable rise of India and China and with them continue to lead the global governance. We must stop our handwringing about China’s rise and focus instead, warns Manuel, on forging harmonious relationships with both giants, to create this brave new world.