the Contested World: Military Power, Global Influence, and End of American Primacy

Primacy has ended, but leadership remains contested. China's expanding economic, industrial, and technological capabilities are changing the balance of military power and international influence. The result is neither a new Chinese century nor a continuation of uncontested American leadership. It is a prolonged struggle over security, institutions, alliances, and the rules of global order. The Contested World examines naval competition in the Indo-Pacific, missile and nuclear deterrence, the Belt and Road Initiative, relations with the Global South, alliance networks, international institutions, and the difficult power of reputation and trust. It asks whether China can convert material strength into durable leadership-and whether the United States can renew the partnerships that made its influence possible. Concluding The Red Ascendancy, this volume brings together the economic, industrial, and technological changes documented throughout the series. America remains powerful. China remains constrained. But the world they now inhabit is no longer organized around a single dominant nation.