Brantly Womack argues that China's regional context is the key to both its economic success and its major political challenges. Pacific Asia is now the world's largest and most cohesive economic region, and China has returned to its center. China's regional experience and challenges will therefore shape its global outlook and prospects.

The Pacific Rim of Asia ¿ Pacific Asia ¿ is now the world's largest and most cohesive economic region, and China has returned to its center. China's global outlook is shaped by its regional experience, first as a pre-modern Asian center, then displaced by Western-oriented modernization, and now returning as a central producer and market in a globalized region. Developments since 2008 have been so rapid that future directions are uncertain, but China's presence, population, and production guarantee it a key role. As a global competitor, China has awakened American anxieties and the US-China rivalry has become a major concern for the rest of the world. However, rather than facing a power transition between hegemons, the US and China are primary nodes in a multi-layered, interconnected global matrix that neither can control. Brantly Womack argues that Pacific Asia is now the key venue for working out a new world order.