Next Great Clash

These are uncertain times. The balance of power is continually shifting worldwide. In The Next Great Clash, Michael Levin presents evidence of a global political order on the verge of a historic power shift from West to East. A reemerging China is the only nation with the latent capacity to challenge American hegemony, and Levin demonstrates that such challenges to the status quo usually lead to war. Russia, even in its diminished capacity since the end of the Cold War, has deftly positioned itself as the swing player in a future conflict between the United States and China.Levin contends that, since the turn of the century, the global War on Terror has distracted the United States from these developments, as China and Russia draw closer together in an alliance that may well displace American primacy. The Next Great Clash, augmented by personal experience in China, Russia, and the United States, combines years of scholarly research and political analysis—along with a riveting and up-to-date history of Chinese-Russian relations. This bold and iconoclastic tour de horizon is a must-read for anyone interested in international affairs.

"Levin analyzes one of the most topical subjects of modern world affairs: relationships among the US, Russia, and China. Levin discusses growing Russian-Chinese cooperation aimed at limiting American influence in the world....Levin has spent many years in China and in Russia. Therefore, he has been able to provide insights developed from many years of analytical research, his thorough knowledge of the subject, and valuable personal experience. Recommended. Upper-division undergraduate, graduate, and research collections." - Choice, "… [R]aises an intellectual intriguing topic. It draws attention to the fact that Russia and China are two great powers that at present appear to be on rising trajectories, whereas the United States appears to be in decline. It is also important to consider that no single great power or combination of great powers other than Russia and China may in the foreseeable future successfully challenge the United States in its role as the world's only political and military superpower. Readers who are not students of international relations as a scholarly discipline will also appreciate a thumbnail sketch of major theories that deal with great-power competition. The book is also a valuable reference to a wealth of historical facts and narratives that bear on relations between the United States and China and China and Russia, from foreign deployments of U.S. troops, to recent China-Russia trade statistics, to Taiwan, Russia-China border treaties and clashes, and the role of pomp and protocol in China's foreign relations calculus. There is also a sensible, quick reference to relevant contemporary issues and actors such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, theater missile defense, North Korea, Iran, Sudan, Pakistan, and India." - Political Science Quarterly

Michael L. Levin is an Executive-in-Residence at the Thunderbird School of Global Management, where he has provided international consulting, research, and advising for both the school and its clients—multinational corporations. Levin has lived and worked in Hong Kong, Jerusalem, Moscow, Shanghai, and Washington, D.C. He currently resides in Chicago, where he is at work on his next book, the first English-language biography of Yevgeny Primakov, one of Russia's foremost diplomats and politicians.