The shift of world power from U.S. and Europe to China and India is evident. From a front row seat Manuel demonstrates why India will be the most im-portant country to shape the Asian and the world future. India, she argues, has the assets and structure to grow democratically to full strength. It has the posi-tion and population to perfectly balance the Chinese hegemony and to partner with the U.S.
Often in company with Condoleezza Rice, Manuel takes the reader along on her business trips as she meets leaders and counts the assets and deficiencies of the two giant countries. India has a youthful, English-speaking population and democratic traditions but it is inefficient, misogynist and often bribery ridden. China has an aging population, no tradition of citizen rule, an ideologi-cal central government, and is ruthlessly expansionist. India’s democratic sys-tem slows it down; China’s centralized authority races it erratically. Balancing these giants is the key to a prosperous and open global system and America’s opportunity to maintain its world power.
There are two examples of the global system adjusting to allow the peaceful rise of a new world power: the U.S. supplanting Britain and the U.S. assisting Germany’s and Japan’s recovery. In the present and near future the U.S.’s aim should be to admit the inevitable rise of India and China and with them contin-ue to lead the global governance.

About the Author

Anja Manuel is Co-Founder and Partner along with former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, former National Security Advisor Stephen Hadley and former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, in RiceHadleyGates LLC. She assists CEOs and senior executives at major companies to expand their businesses in key international markets in India and China. From 2005 to 2007, she served as Special Assistant to Under-Secretary for Political Af-fairs Nicholas Burns at the U.S. Department of State, responsible for South Asia Policy. She helped negotiate the U.S.-India civilian nuclear accord, and secure its passage in the U.S. Congress. She graduated from Harvard Law School and Stanford University and lives in San Francisco, CA.