As the international order begins to crumble, this incisive book asks what the rise of the Asian superstates means for the future. The paperback edition features a new postscript considering the implications of the chaotic second Trump administration.

A Financial Times Best Book of 2025: Economics
An India’s World Best Foreign Policy Book of 2025
Shortlisted for the Westminster Book Awards

Accounting for more than a third of the world’s population, China and India have the potential to wield enormous economic and political power. China is already vying with the US for the top spot in the global economy, and on some measures has surpassed it. By the middle of the century India may be number two. How will these countries navigate their growing roles on the world stage? What are the implications for commerce, security, international law and the urgent fight against climate change?

Vince Cable has followed China and India for decades, first as a professional economist and later as a senior government minister. In Eclipsing the West, he brings a lifetime of political and economic knowledge to bear on one of the most urgent questions of our age. Telling the story of several possible futures, he asks: which one will we choose?