BOOK REVIEW: YAN XUETONG (2019), LEADERSHIP AND THE RISE OF GREAT POWERS, Princeton University Press

Abstract

Global geopolitical balances will change much more rapidly in the next decade than in previous decades. The current bipolarity between the two world economic powers, Cine and USA is, perhaps, destined to become a concentration of decision-making power in the Asian area. This and other hypotheses on future international relations are central to the reasoning articulated in Yan Xuetong's book Leadership and the Rise of Great Powers. Unlike Western theories, which link the power of a nation to institutions, to the political form of the State, to governance, according to Beijing theories the independent variable that gives shape and speed to changes in the global order is leadership. The author is a leading academic authority in China and dean of Tsinghua University's Institute of Modern International Relations, considered the country's leading university, where many of the other Communist Party leaders including secretary Xi Jinping graduated. The theories that Xuetong presents in the book are the result of the intense debate underway in China, aimed at understanding the characteristics of the current challenge among the great powers. The book is published in Great Britain and the United States as confirmation of the fact that the Chinese political summit intends to inaugurate a new strategy in international relations with the West