Chandran Nair explores the global stakes of U.S.-China rivalry and argues that China may have a clearer vision for the future world order.

Whatever emerges is likely to be shaped in important ways by the evolving relationship between China and the United States. Those are the only two countries with the power, the ambition, the history, and the hubris to imagine themselves as great enough powers not to rule, perhaps, but to shape the new world. The problem, of course, is that no two countries—indeed, civilizations—could be more unlike each other. In the past, that set-up has been a formula for competition, even conflict, but as Henry Kissinger pointed out, such competition never before played out in a truly globalized world like that of the 21st century. The potential for catastrophe is obvious.

So as an approximation, in this episode of New Thinking for a New World, we explore what all this looks like from an Asian perspective. Chandran Nair is the founder and CEO of the Global Institute For Tomorrow, a Pan-Asian think tank based in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur. He is deeply knowledgeable about both Great Powers and, as you will hear, believes that the Chinese are much more clear-eyed about how the world ought to work.

He may or may not be right: what do you think?