Power assessments shape our perceptions of the limits of the possible, but quantitative rankings and dashboards can provide false confidence.
Nicholas Kitchen
This volume provides an integrated perspective on the major issues that influence stability in Strategic Asia. Leading experts examine Asia’s performance in nine key functional areas to provide a continent-wide net assessment of the core trends and issues affecting the region.
Source: The National Bureau of Asian Research

Order this book, or read the introduction by Ashley J. Tellis for free.
About the Editors:
Ashley J. Tellis, Senior Associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Research Director of the Strategic Asia Program at NBR, served in the U.S. Department of State as senior adviser to the Undersecretary of State of Public Affairs, and previously as senior adviser to the Ambassador at the U.S. Embassy in India. He also served on the National Security Council Staff as special assistant to the President and senior director for Strategic Planning and Southwest Asia. He is the author of India’s Emerging Nuclear Posture (2001) and co-author of Interpreting China’s Grand Strategy: Past, Present, and Future (2000), as well as the co-editor of seven most recent volumes of Strategic Asia, published by NBR.
Andrew Marble is the Editor at the National Bureau of Asian Research.
Travis Tanner is the Senior Project Director and Director of the Pyle Center for Northeast Asian Studies at the National Bureau of Asian Research.
Former Senior Fellow
Ashley J. Tellis was a senior fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.
Andrew Marble
NBR
Travis Tanner
NBR
Carnegie does not take institutional positions on public policy issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of Carnegie, its staff, or its trustees.
Power assessments shape our perceptions of the limits of the possible, but quantitative rankings and dashboards can provide false confidence.
Nicholas Kitchen
The 1986 incident showed that a nuclear accident anytime is a nuclear accident for all time.
Corey Hinderstein
The debate over AI and work too often centers on displacement. Facing aging populations and shrinking workforces, East Asian policymakers view AI not as a threat, but as a cross-sectoral workforce strategy.
Darcie Draudt-Véjares, Sophie Zhuang
In its version of an AI middle power strategy, Seoul is pursuing alignment with the United States not as an endpoint but as a strategy to build industrial and geopolitical leverage. Whether this balance holds remains an open question.
Darcie Draudt-Véjares, Seungjoo Lee
China’s rapid technological progress and its first-rate infrastructure are often cited as refuting the claim that China has been systematically overinvesting in non-productive projects for many years. In fact, as the logic of overinvestment and the many historical precedents show, the former is all-too-often consistent with the latter.
Michael Pettis