The world is slowly eliminating poverty and seeing a rising middle class, which along with education and technology, brings an unprecedented convergence of interests, cultures and standards. Kishore Mahbubani is the dean of Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS, and in his book he urges countries to abandon inefficient national policies and agree on a fair system of global governance with rule of law. As he notes in the conclusion to his book, the global information revolution exposes hypocrisy and lack of fairness.
China is a fast-rising power, but there are many forms that global influence can take, ranging from hard forms that focus on international security to soft forms that emphasize amenable trade, culture, education, innovation and more. With the world’s largest population and strong economic growth, the country is formidable. In modernizing, China has pursued power in its many dimensions, yet except for a few areas still absorbs more influence than releasing it, and hence the subtitle for David Shambaugh’s book to be published in February 2013, China Goes Global: The Partial Power.
