Book excerpt: Since Nixon's opening to China in 1972, eight successive U.S. Presidents have bet that integrating China into the world economy will change China before China changes the international system. This highly readable collection of essays challenges that assumption from the perspectives of history, demographics and military strategy. U.S.-China cooperation has expanded in recent years and that trend is likely to continue, but the authors in this volume remind us that China's future is not pre-ordained and that the United States must take a more proactive approach to shape the strategic environment in Asia. - Michael J. Green, Former Special Assistant to the President for National Security Affairs and Senior Director for Asia, NSC; Senior Advisor and Japan Chair, CSIS; Associate Professor, Georgetown University ''A masterful survey of the clash of ideas, interests and powers that will define the security order of the next few decades. This book is robust, undiplomatic, and sometimes scary to read. -Mark Leonard, author of What Does China Think? ''Gary Schmitt has assembled a superlative cast of foreign policy experts to examine one of the greatest long-term challenges that the United States faces. It is not, as he writes, the rise of China per se but rather the rise of a ''People's Republic of China'' that causes concern for American policymakers. Those who read this invaluable book will not have their concerns allayed, but they will gain a much better understanding of the issues involved. This is the best single-volume overview of U.S.-China relations that anyone has produced.