Why China's Rise May Not Cause Major Power-Transition War: A Review Essay

This article seeks to review these theoretical debates in light of recent empirical evidence. The two publications are selected for two reasons. First, China's Ascent is a collection of contributions made by leading scholars in the field of international security and is based on different optimistic perspectives on the question of China's rise. The second publication, Southeast Asia and the Rise of China, was more recently published. Based on some of the theoretical insights and empirical evidence presented by the authors in the two volumes, I argue that the Asia-Pacific region is bound to remain stable and potentially more peaceful if and when China becomes a liberal democracy.