About the Book
A leading foreign policy expert tells the story of how China's non-confrontational strategy is reshaping the rules of the new world order. In "The Beijing Consensus", Stefan Halper presents a coherent integration of both the economic and strategic sides of China-US relations. In its efforts to influence the rest of the world-to create a new liberal and democratic order - the United States has used its military and economic might to force developing countries to aim toward democratic reform and transparency. A fine strategy, when you're the only game in town. The Chinese, Halper argues, have chosen to confront the United States only indirectly. Instead of playing by America's rules, as did the Soviet Union, China has redefined the rules of the game. China doles out money to dictators - with no strings attached. They buy resources from Africa and South America - without forcing transparency or reform down oligarchs' throats. In doing so, it's presenting the world's despots with a viable alternative to the so-called Washington Consensus. China is showing the world how to have economic growth with an illiberal government.
At the same time, Halper argues, that its rapid economic growth has created massive fissures in Chinese society between the haves and the have-nots. In order to maintain political control, the Chinese Communist Party has to sustain double-digit economic growth, which means that it must exploit and co-opt the rest of the world's resources. Necessity lies at the heart of China's expansionist policies. Without them, the Communist Party risks its own demise. "The Beijing Consensus" will prove to be a vital book in understanding the increasingly complex relationship between the United States and China-and between China and the rest of the world.
About the Author :
Stefan Halper is a Senior Fellow in the Department of Politics and International Studies at the University of Cambridge, where he directs the Donner Atlantic Studies Programme. He is also Senior Research Fellow at Magdalene College, Cambridge, and a Distinguished Fellow at the Nixon Center in Washington, D.C. Halper served in the White House and Department of State during the Nixon, Ford, and Reagan administrations, advising on a range of U.S. foreign policy and national security issues. His writing has appeared in the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and other newspapers and magazines. He is a frequent commentator on national security and foreign policy issues for the print and broadcast media. He divides his time between Great Falls, Virginia, and Cambridge, UK.
Review :
Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State
"Stefan Halper provides a thoughtful and well-researched book that addresses the impact of China's market-authoritarian model on global affairs in the century before us. Halper points to a 'battle of ideas' in which China challenges Western concepts of governance while appealing to the developing world with a model for growth and stability."
James R. Schlesinger, former Secretary of Defense and Energy
"In this deeply researched and well-written book, the challenge posed by China, as Dr. Halper sees it, is not fundamentally military, but political and economic. China's example of rapid economic growth and authoritarian rule may well have greater appeal in the developing world with the result that developing nations increasingly reject democratic values, transparency and rule of law in favor of a dynamic market-authoritarian model that delivers growth but limits many freedoms we cherish. Among the results are trends that leave this country increasingly isolated."
Publisher's Weekly
"Halper cogently rejects the 'conventional wisdom' that suggests America's relationship with China is 'on track' in this lucid, probing text...[Halper] concludes this sobering, excellently argued book with concrete policy recommendations..."
James B. L. Mayall, University of Cambridge, Emeritus Professor of International Relations and Departmental Chairman
"In this deeply researched and well-written book Stefan Halper challenges Washington's conventional wisdom, arguing powerfully that the strategic battle will not be primarily over territory or even markets. It will be over values, a contest between the liberal values of the Enlightenment and the Chinese model of market authoritarianism. This book does not pretend to suggest that there is an easy answer, much more valuably it lays out the issues clearly and sets the stage for an informed and rational debate."
Sir Richard Dearlove, former head of the British Secret Intelligence Service (MI6)
"The rise of modern China has generated megabytes of commentary, most of it rather predictable in content and ideas. Here at last is a fresh, original book of great insight that gives an alternative and attention-grabbing view of China's steady advance towards super-power status. Stefan Halper's book decodes the wider and worrying significance of such a striking historical juxtaposition. "
James R. Lilley, former US Ambassador to China and South Korea and Chief of the US Mission in Taiwan
"Stefan Halper has analyzed and given historical perspective to probably the greatest issue we face in the 21st Century, the rise of China and the role of the United States. China and the US must cooperate, cautiously, for the sake of mankind but this must be accompanied by a clear-eyed view of a military/strategic balance. This is a wide ranging book, challenging and well-written and researched, and should be read by people who have an interest in the outcome of the 21st Century."
Ted Carpenter, Executive Vice President for Defense and Foreign Policy, The CATO Institute
"Stefan Halper provides a thoughtful, refreshing analysis of the strategic and economic enigma that is China, carefully avoiding the fallacy of seeing China as either a mortal military and commercial threat to the United States or as a benign strategic partner for this country. Halper demolishes an assortment of myths and may well have written the most important book to have appeared in the past decade on China and U.S. policy toward that emerging great power."
John F. Lehman, former Secretary of the Navy
"Twenty years of mismanaged diplomacy and deterrence enabled an avoidable world war in the Pacific. If Stef Halper had been writing then it might have been different. Today a similar pattern of inadequate strategy carries the seeds of another Pacific war involving America and China, but Halper has provided a timely book to help avoid history repeating. His concepts and logic, delivered in lucid, even elegant prose are overwhelmingly persuasive, setting a positive new framework for debate in Washington."
Minxin Pei, Senior Scholar, The Carnegie Endowment, Professor of Political Science, Claremont College
"Stefan Halper has written a thoughtful and provocative book that challenges us to rethink the conventional wisdom about the impact of China's ascendance on the world order. It should be required reading the policy community."
Henry Kissinger, former Secretary of State
"Stefan Halper provides a thoughtful and well-researched book that addresses the impact of China's market-authoritarian model on global affairs in the century before us. Halper points to a 'battle of ideas' in which China challenges Western concepts of governance while appealing to the developing world with a model for growth and stability."
James R. Schlesinger, former Secretary of Defense and Energy
"In this deeply researched and well-written book, the challenge posed by China, as Dr. Halper sees it, is not fundamentally military, but political and economic. China's example of rapid economic growth and authoritarian rule may well have greater appeal in the developing world with the result that developing nations increasingly reject democratic values, transparency and rule of law in favor of a dynamic market-authoritarian model that delivers growth but limits many freedoms we cherish. Among the results are trends that leave this country increasingly isolated."
"Publisher's Weekly"
"Halper cogently rejects the 'conventional wisdom' that suggests America's relationship with China is 'on track' in this lucid, probing text...[Halper] concludes this sobering, excellently argued book with concrete policy recommendations..."
John F. Lehman, former Secretary of the Navy
"Twenty years of mismanaged diplomacy and deterrence enabled an avoidable world war in the Pacific. If Stef Halper had been writing then it might have been different. Today a similar pattern of inadequate strategy carries the seeds of another Pacific war involving America and China, but Halper has provided a timely book to help avoid history repeating. His concepts and logic, delivered in lucid, even elegant prose are overwhelmingly persuasive, setting a positive new framework for debate in Washington."
Minxin Pei, Senior Scholar, The Carnegie Endowment, Professor of Political Science, Claremont College
"Stefan Halper
