First published 2019
Former National Security Affairs Assistant H.R. McMaster steps into the arena at Toronto's Munk Debate on May 9, 2019. He teams with Hudson Institute strategist Michael Pillsbury to argue that China threatens the liberal international order. Across from them stand former UN Security Council President Kishore Mahbubani and Chinese think tank leader Huiyao Wang, who counter that China actually protects global stability while American leadership weakens. McMaster must navigate competing visions of superpower dynamics as Western nations increasingly view China through a lens of suspicion. The debate exposes fundamental disagreements about whether Chinese Communist Party policies endanger free societies or whether confrontational approaches risk disaster by ignoring the forces driving China's ascent. As regional instability grows and global economic growth slows, McMaster confronts the central question of whether America and its allies should unite to preserve existing rules or accept China as the new guarantor of international order.
Genres: history, international-relations, political-science, china, non-fiction, 21st-century, current-affairs, academic
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers
Setting: China, Toronto, United States, West
Period: 2019
144 pages · Paperback · House of Anansi Press