Before the current international economic crisis, Asian policymakers deferred to their Western counterparts. The enormous blunders since committed by the US and Europe mean deference has been replaced by disquiet. Asia's concern is that the world will soon come to grief if both the US and Europe...

Isolation -- Depression Stalinism -- Postwar: the Bretton Woods Cold War -- Aspiration -- Restoration: resuming the relationship with capitalism -- Maelstrom: the decolonization vortex -- Integration -- Conformity and profit: the Soviet economy under American hegemony -- Poor relations: the...