The foreign policy issues President Obama faces are taking place against the backdrop of something even bigger: a massive shift in the distribution of global wealth and power toward Asia.

The Bush administration has not yet insisted upon any serious measures to verify the full scope and status of the North's nuclear weapons programs.

The Bush administration now appears unwilling to supply Taiwan with the weapons they were originally offered in 2001.

China's growth and disagreement over North Korea threaten to set back the most important pan-Pacific alliance.

The very title of Aaron Friedberg's book will stir controversy among those who believe devoutly in China's "peaceful rise" as a global "responsible stakeholder." This book is a judicious, measured assessment of the stakes between China and the United States over the next several decades.

The road to Pyongyang runs through Beijing.

With the U.S.-ROK alliance in question, the United States must assert its military posture, maintain relations with Japan, defend sea lines of communication, and maintain a role in Asia.

There have been two major books published this summer on relations between the United States and China: Henry Kissinger's On China and this one. And while Kissinger himself has had an immense impact on how those relations have unfolded over the past four decades, Aaron L. Friedberg's volume, A Contest for Supremacy, will likely be far more important in laying out the path forward.