China's future is arguably the most consequential question in global affairs. Having enjoyed unprecedented levels of growth, China is at a critical juncture in the development of its economy, society, polity, national security and international relations. The direction the nation takes at this crossroads will determine whether it stumbles and ultimately stalls or whether it continues to develop and prosper.

Will China be successful in implementing a new wave of transformational reforms that could last decades and make the country the world s leading superpower by 2025? Or will the PRC shy away from the drastic changes required and risk stagnation or even regime collapse? Or will China instead emerge as a hard, authoritarian and aggressive superstate?

In this new book, David Shambaugh, one of the world s leading Sinologists, argues that these potential pathways are all possibilities - but they depend on key decisions yet to be made by China's leaders, different institutions and groups in Chinese society, as well as being shaped by other nations. Drawing on four decades of experience studying and visiting China, Shambaugh assesses these challenges and their implications, offering a stimulating and thoughtful study of China's future for all those seeking to understand the country's likely trajectory over the coming decade and beyond.

David Shambaugh is an internationally recognized authority and author on contemporary China and the international relations of Asia. At Brookings, he is a nonresident senior fellow with the Center for East Asian Policy Studies and the John L. Thornton China Center. He is also a professor of political science and international affairs and the founding director of the China Policy Program at George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs.

Shambaugh was previously a reader in Chinese politics at the University of London’s School of Oriental and African Studies, where he also served as editor of The China Quarterly. He currently serves on the board of directors of the National Committee on United States-China Relations, and is a member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, Council on Foreign Relations, U.S. Asia-Pacific Council and other public policy and scholarly organizations. Shambaugh was a fellow with the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, a senior scholar with the Phi Beta Kappa Society, a senior Fulbright scholar and a distinguished research professor at the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences. He has received research grants from the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Smith Richardson Foundation, German Marshall Fund, British Academy, International Research Exchange Board and U.S. National Academy of Sciences. He has also been a visiting scholar or professor at institutions in Australia, China, Hong Kong, Italy, Japan, Singapore and Russia.

Shambaugh is also a frequent commentator in the international media, he serves on a number of editorial boards and he has been a consultant to various governments, research institutions, foundations and private corporations. As an author, he has written or edited 30 books, including China Goes Global: The Partial Power (Oxford University Press, 2013), selected by The Economist, Foreign Affairs and Bloomberg News as one of the “Best Books of the Year”; Tangled Titans: The United States and China (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012); Charting China’s Future: Domestic & International Challenges (Routledge, 2011); China’s Communist Party: Atrophy and Adaptation (University of California Press, 2008); International Relations of Asia (Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2008); The Odyssey of China’s Imperial Art Treasures (University of Washington Press, 2007); Power Shift: China & Asia’s New Dynamics (University of California Press, 2005); and Modernizing China’s Military: Progress, Problems, and Prospects (University of California Press, 2002) . Shambaugh is the co-editor and contributor of Transatlantic Relations and China: Deepening the Cooperation (German Institute of International and Security Affairs, 2008); China-Europe Relations: Perceptions, Policies & Prospects (Routledge Press, 2007); China Watching: Perspectives from Europe, Japan & the United States (Routledge Press, 2007); and Divided Diplomacy and the New Administration: Conservative vs. Liberal Alternatives (George Washington University, 2004).

Shambaugh has a bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies from the Elliott School of International Affairs at George Washington University, amaster’s in international affairs from Johns Hopkins University Nitze School of Advanced International Studies and he holds a doctorate in political science from the University of Michigan.