In the late 18th century, the political economist Adam Smith predicted an eventual equalization of power between the conquering West and the conquered non-West. Demonstrating Smith's continued relevance to understanding China's extraordinary rise, this book examines the events that have brought it about.

In the late eighteenth century, the political economist Adam Smith predicted an eventual equalization of power between the conquering West and the conquered non-West. Demonstrating Smith's continued relevance to understanding China's extraordinary rise, Arrighi examines the events that have brought it about, and the increasing dependence of US wealth and power on Chinese imports and purchases of US Treasury bonds. He traces how the recent US attempt to bring into existence the first truly global empire in world history was done in order to counter China's spectacular economic success of the 1990s, and how the US' disastrous failure in Iraq has made China the true winner of the US War on Terror. Smith's vision of a world market society based on greater equality among the world's civilizations is now more likely than at any time since "The Wealth of Nations" was published in 1776. In the 21st century, China may well become again the kind of non-capitalist market economy that Smith described, under totally different domestic and world-historical conditions.