A provocative account of the state of Asian geopolitics and US foreign policy in Asia.

William H. Overholt holds the Asia Policy Research Chair at RAND's California headquarters and is Director of the Center. Dr Overholt was previously Joint Senior Fellow at Harvard University. After eight years at a think tank consulting on national security issues, he ran investment bank research teams, mainly in Asia, from 1980 to 2001 and served as a consultant to several major political figures in Asia. He is the author of six books, including The Rise of China (1993), which won the Mainichi News/Asian Affairs Research Center Special Book Prize.

1. Introduction: The inertia of foreign policies; 2. Cold War assumptions and changing realities; 3. Regional trends; 4. Asia's big powers: Japan and China; 5. Smaller places, decisive pivots: Taiwan, Korea, Southeast Asia; 6. The aspiring power and its near abroad: India and South Asia; 7. Russia and its near abroad; 8. The United States and the New Asia; 9. Scenarios for the future; 10. Conclusion.