Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Rest Without the West
TPM Cafe is devoting this week's book club to Josh Kurlantzick's Charm Offensive: How China's Soft Power Is Transforming the World.
In the course of that discussion there has been some comment on the forthcoming TNI essay by Naazneen Barma, Ely Ratner, and Steven Weber (of which there has been earlier discussion here at TWR)--and I recommend reading all the selections.
UPDATE: Josh Kurlantzick has just posted a new response--and within is a key observation which applies not only to China but could apply to Russia, to Kazakhstan, to a variety of states where the democracy project has slowed down even as the economies have grown:
"Isn't it possible, as Jim Mann suggests in his new book, that the very elites in Chinese cities who would be most necessary for serious political reform are the very people who've benefited most from the current system, and might actually be resistant to change now?"
In the course of that discussion there has been some comment on the forthcoming TNI essay by Naazneen Barma, Ely Ratner, and Steven Weber (of which there has been earlier discussion here at TWR)--and I recommend reading all the selections.
UPDATE: Josh Kurlantzick has just posted a new response--and within is a key observation which applies not only to China but could apply to Russia, to Kazakhstan, to a variety of states where the democracy project has slowed down even as the economies have grown:
"Isn't it possible, as Jim Mann suggests in his new book, that the very elites in Chinese cities who would be most necessary for serious political reform are the very people who've benefited most from the current system, and might actually be resistant to change now?"
