A leading foreign policy thinker uses Chinese political theory to explain why some powers rise as others decline and what this means for the international order.

1Morality, Power, and Authority. The Role of Morality in Realism Theory ; Levels and Components of Morality ; Differences between Power, Capability, and Authority ; Influence of Morality and Strategic Credibility ; Summary -- 2 Leadership and Strategic Preferences. The Role and Types of Leadership ; Leaderships of a Rising State and Strategic Preferences ; Strategic Credibility and International Leadership ; The Principle of Humane Authority ; Summary -- 3 Corollaries of International Change. State Leadership and Change of Power Configuration ; State Capability, Leadership, and Strategy Preference ; International Leadership and Norm Change ; Changes in International Order and Systems ; Summary -- 4 Power Redistribution and World Center. Leadership and Bipolarization ; Bipolar Configuration Not Equal to Cold War ; Conditions for Forming a World Center ; Summary -- 5 Leadership and International Norms. Early Studies of Leadership and Norm Change ; Types of Leadership and Types of Norms ; Change in the Type of International Norms ; Summary -- 6 International Mainstream Values. Value Challenge and Competition ; Devaluation of Strategic Credibility ; Beyond Liberalism ; Summary -- 7 Transformation of the International System. Component Change versus System Change ; Conditions for System Transformation ; Political Leadership and System Transformation ; Summary -- 8 Historical Cases of System Transformation ; Ancient Chinese Cases ; Cases in Modern History ; Summary -- 9 Conclusion. Theory Summarization ; A New Bipolar World -- Appendix: Ancient Chinese Figures ; Notes ; Selected Bibliography ; Index.