Grzegorz W. Kolodko is Professor of Economics at Kozminski University in Warsaw, and founder and Director of the TIGER Institute of Economic Affairs. He is a former Deputy Prime Minister of Poland and Minister of Finance, where he was a key architect of the economic reforms that brought Poland into the OECD in the 1990s. He is the author of Whither the World: The Political Economy of the Future (Palgrave, 2014) and of Truth, Errors and Lies: Economics and Politics in a Volatile World (Columbia University Press, 2011). He has written widely for international media and his books have been translated into 16 different languages.

• List of diagramsList of mapsList of tables Initial reflectionsChapter One: Economy and security1. Cold War Two 2. Cascade of threats3. Technology and politicsChapter Two: The century of Asia with China leading the way?1. A country in the middle of Asia2. New Silk Road instead of exporting revolution3. Nobody likes a hard landingChapter Three: People and goods in the changing world 1. Between a demographic explosion and a population deficit2. How long, how fast?3. Where is the East, where is the West?4. Myth of the free market being perfectChapter Four: Socialism, capitalism or Chinism?1. Economy – society – state2. In search of equilibrium 3. Socialism with Chinese characteristics or corrupt crony capitalism? 4. Whither China and what business is it to others5. Tertium daturChapter Five: Recipe for crisis1. At the expense of many for the benefit of few2. Legally but immorallyChapter Six: What do the Chinese ask about?1. Right questions at the right time2. What students want to know3. Chinese panoply of questionsChapter Seven: New pragmatism with Chinese characteristics1. Vision rather than illusions2. 16+1 initiative3. China coming to our rescue? Final reflections ReferencesIndex

Grzegorz Kolodko has written a concise, erudite, balanced and perceptive book on the global implications of China's unstoppable rise. We are moving, inescapably, into a multi-polar and multi-cultural world.