Empires have unfairly gotten a bad name, not least in U.S. domestic politics. This is particularly unfortunate, as the world needs an American pax to provide both global peace and prosperity. The most urgent task in the new imperium is to bring the world of Islam into the modern world, without seeking to alter its soul. In this monograph, Deepak Lal gives reasons to believe the United States should be able to fulfill this imperial task. But is it willing? Given the continuing resonance of Wilsonian moralism in public discourse, Lal is doubtful. There must first be an acceptance in domestic...

China's economic growth since 1978 has transformed the country. People are richer, freer, and healthier than they have ever been, and if current growth rates are sustained, poverty will be eliminated in China by 2025. But China's economic growth has also created its own challenges. And Beijing's growing military power threatens to put it on a collision course with the United States. Dwight Perkins looks at the major obstacles that Beijing must yet surmount if it is to emerge as a rich country in the twenty-first century and considers the steps that China must take to succeed.

Jeffrey G. Williamson examines the political economy of immigration backlash and immigration policy in two global centuries. The first, between 1820 and World War I, was a proglobal environment, characterized by booming trade, labor, and capital markets. It was followed by an antiglobal and autarchic retreat between 1914 and 1950.