Upstart

"Upstart is a must-read. Mastro provides a new way to understand how China has built its national power over the past thirty years. In doing so, she provides a clearer way forward for policymakers hoping to get China right. * Stephen Hadley, former National Security Advisor of the United States * Upstart applies the logic of business competition to China's drive for great power status, a framework that provides an original and illuminating perspective on Sino-U.S. relations. According to Mastro, although Beijing is modeling itself on America as a ""great power,"" more often than not, it chooses not to emulate American-style power projection in order to avoid provoking a backlash. My take-away from Mastroâs analysis is that while Chinaâs ambition is inevitable, a smart U.S. strategy can avoid war by channeling it into peaceful competition. * Susan Shirk, U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of East Asia and Pacific Affairs, founding chair of the 21st Century China Center and author of Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise * A fresh and insightful approach to understanding China's rise. Drawing on the business literature on competition, Upstart is theoretically stimulating and empirically sound. It is well worth reading by scholars and practitioners alike. * David Shambaugh, George Washington University, and author of China Goes Global * Full of new insights and breakthrough analysis, Upstart provides a clear-eyed, concise, and compelling new framework for understanding Chinese strategic thinking and behavior. It is an outstanding addition to the China field and a must-read for anyone interested in China's rise to power and what it means for the United States. * Elizabeth Charissa Economy, former Senior Foreign Advisor (for China) in the Department of Commerce and author of The World According to China * Oriana Skylar Mastro gives us the definitive work on the truly pernicious nature of the PRC's competitive strategy. As a result, Upstart clearly conveys the changes in relative power in the Indo-Pacific, and the opportunities available to the U.S. to manage them. There is much to be done and Orianaâs work cogently points the way. An extraordinary read! * Phil Davidson, Admiral Phil Davidson U.S. Navy (retired) Commander, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command 2018-2021 * Oriana Skylar Mastro has produced a compelling analysis of the most consequential competition of the coming century and how the United States and likeminded partners must compete to preserve peace and promote prosperity for generations to come. Upstart is a book to be read, debated, and applied to policy and strategy across the public and private sectors. * H.R. McMaster, former U.S. National Security Advisor and author of Battlegrounds: The Fight to Defend the Free World * Oriana Skylar Mastro's book offers an original, provocative, and persuasive thesis of China's rise as a great power. Its meticulous research and lucid analysis illuminate China's grand strategy that has enabled the country to reach near parity with the U.S. Mastro's masterpiece not only helps us gain a better understanding of the past, but also provides valuable insights for policy makers as they wrestle with the China challenge today. * Minxin Pei, Professor of Government, Claremont McKenna College and author of The Sentinel State: Surveillance and the Survival of Dictatorship in China * In targeting the US, China embarked on a flexible three-pronged approach to superpower status that blunted international backlash, protected Party legitimacy and normalized success. Oriana Skylar Mastro's penetrating and deeply intelligent analysis unravels the strategy behind China's challenge to US foreign policy, military and economic supremacy. By minimizing threat perceptions, China has both emulated and innovated pathways to global power and influence. * Ambassador Charlene Barshefsky, former United States Trade Representative * Upstart is the rarest of books: serious and scholarly, yet still fun and punchy. By drawing on the business literature on competition, Oriana Skylar Mastro has given us an invaluable new intellectual framework with which to understand the Chinese Communist Party's grand strategy. Students, scholars, and policymakers at all levels should read Upstart to not only understand how China managed to close the gap with America over the past thirty years, but also jumpstart America's efforts to compete more successfully over the next thirty years. * Rep. Mike Gallagher, Chairman of the Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party * Oriana Mastro suggests that, China has grown strong by rationally employing a mix of emulation, exploitation, and entrepreneurial policies in the face of changing American reactions across time. Thus it has achieved great power status without provoking an all-out containment response from the U.S. Mastro presents a well-researched and sophisticated challenge to simplistic power transition and realist accounts of Chinaâs rise that are currently in vogue in Washington. * Alastair Iain Johnston, Professor of Government, Harvard University * Upstart provides a sophisticated framework for measuring great power status, and explains how China succeeded in rising to this status using a combination of approaches that capitalized on US weaknesses and Beijing's unique strengths. The book is invaluable for understanding both China and geopolitical competition today. * Francis Fukuyama, Olivier Nomellini Senior Fellow, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies and Director, Ford Dorsey Master's in International Policy, Stanford University * Oriana Skylar Mastro's Upstart provides a comprehensive explanation of China's dramatic rise to great power status in a competitive international environment. Mastro shows how the Chinese Communist Party leadership employed a strategy based upon a combination of emulation, exploitation, and entrepreneurship to gain influence in foreign policy, increase its military capabilities, and build its economic power. Her book will find an eager audience among scholars and policy makers alike. * Thomas G. Mahnken, Senior Research Professor, Merrill Center for Strategic Studies, Johns Hopkins SAIS and President and CEO, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments * Insightful and thoroughly researched ... Mastro innovatively explains the processes behind China's challenge and sets out strategic possibilities to counter it. * Kirkus Reviews *"