Media Releases

The long game: New book probes the uneasy future of China’s relationship with the United States

December 16, 2013

TORONTO, ON – The glob­al finan­cial cri­sis accel­er­at­ed China’s rise in the world econ­o­my, dis­rupt­ing a post-cold war sta­tus quo in which the Unit­ed States was the world’s largest and most dynam­ic econ­o­my and undis­put­ed super pow­er. The world eco­nom­ic order is shift­ing. Can those who man­age inter­na­tion­al com­mer­cial, cul­tur­al or polit­i­cal exchanges afford to ignore this shift?

In her eager­ly await­ed new book Part­ners and Rivals: The Uneasy Future of China’s Rela­tion­ship with the Unit­ed States, pub­lished by Rot­man-UT Pub­lish­ing, award-win­ning econ­o­mist and Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to pro­fes­sor  Wendy Dob­son empha­sizes the asym­me­try in our famil­iar­i­ty with US strengths and weak­ness­es and lack of famil­iar­i­ty with China’s huge domes­tic chal­lenges and view of the world.  She argues that with both gov­ern­ments deeply pre­oc­cu­pied at home and the two economies so deeply inter­twined they share a com­mon pref­er­ence for inter­na­tion­al sta­bil­i­ty.  They will inevitably be rivals as China’s econ­o­my over­takes the US in size.  But they will also be part­ners, coop­er­at­ing with nei­ther in a posi­tion to upstage the oth­er.  She exam­ines how each views itself and the oth­er, how Chi­na views the world and the exist­ing insti­tu­tions, and how and why they can and should coop­er­ate.

Prof. Dob­son is co-direc­tor of the Insti­tute for Inter­na­tion­al Busi­ness at the Rot­man School of Man­age­ment, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to, and Chair of the Inter­na­tion­al Steer­ing Com­mit­tee of the Pacif­ic Trade and Devel­op­ment (PAFTAD) Con­fer­ence, a pan-Pacif­ic eco­nom­ic research net­work.  Notable amongst her many award-win­ning books on Asia and the inter­na­tion­al econ­o­my is Grav­i­ty Shift: How Asia’s New Eco­nom­ic Pow­er­hous­es Will Shape the 21st Cen­tu­ry. The Man­darin trans­la­tion received the annu­al Best Book in Finance and Eco­nom­ics award (2010) from HeXun.com, a lead­ing Chi­nese finan­cial web­site.

ADVANCE PRAISE FOR PARTNERS AND RIVALS

“Part­ners and Rivals force­ful­ly reminds us that all pol­i­tics, includ­ing geopol­i­tics, start at home. Wendy Dobson’s thought­ful, informed, and up-to-date analy­sis of the dri­vers and future prospects of US-Chi­na rela­tions is ground­ed in the domes­tic chal­lenges that Chi­na must not only address, but over­come. She argues that no pow­er becomes “super” absent a strong eco­nom­ic basis, which is a use­ful and impor­tant reminder that the stage is set for a very long game indeed.” — Joseph Caron, for­mer Cana­di­an Ambas­sador to Chi­na.

“The world is shift­ing pro­found­ly, with Chi­na at the epi­cen­tre of the changes in glob­al economies and with the evolv­ing US-Chi­na rela­tion­ship at the fore­front of reshap­ing glob­al geopol­i­tics. Under­stand­ing these piv­otal trends is cru­cial, and Part­ners and Rivals deliv­ers a com­pelling analy­sis of the dynam­ics at play. Pro­fes­sor Dobson’s book is an excel­lent guide to a com­plex jour­ney, clear­ly set­ting out the log­ic and con­di­tions for greater coop­er­a­tion between Chi­na and the US.” — The Hon­ourable Kevin G. Lynch, Vice Chair­man, BMO Finan­cial Group and For­mer Clerk of the Privy Coun­cil and Sec­re­tary to the Cab­i­net

Watch Prof. Dob­son dis­cuss Part­ners and Rivals in this clip. http://youtu.be/nkog-PhnR4k

Rot­man-UT Pub­lish­ing is an imprint of Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Press. Found­ed in 1901, Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to Press (UTP) is Canada’s old­est schol­ar­ly press and one of the largest uni­ver­si­ty press­es in North Amer­i­ca, releas­ing over 200 new schol­ar­ly, ref­er­ence, and gen­er­al-inter­est books each year, as well as main­tain­ing a back­list of over 3500 titles in print. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.utppublishing.com.

The Rot­man School of Man­age­ment at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to is redesign­ing busi­ness edu­ca­tion for the 21st cen­tu­ry with a cur­ricu­lum based on Inte­gra­tive Think­ing. Locat­ed in the world’s most diverse city, the Rot­man School fos­ters a new way to think that enables the design of cre­ative busi­ness solu­tions. For more infor­ma­tion, vis­it www.rotman.utoronto.ca.

 ‑30-

For more infor­ma­tion:
Ken McGuf­fin
Man­ag­er, Media Rela­tions
Rot­man School of Man­age­ment
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
Voice 416.946.3818
E‑mail mcguffin@rotman.utoronto.ca
Fol­low Rot­man on Twit­ter @rotmanschool
Watch Rot­man on You Tube www.youtube.com/rotmanschool