The leaders of middle powers refuse to be a pawn in a new cold war. China’s rise has challenged America’s undisputed hegemony over the world economy – a status the United States has enjoyed since the Soviet Union’s collapse. While some American national-security elites seek continued US primacy, others seem resigned to an increasingly bipolar world. A more likely outcome, however, is a multipolar world where middle powers exert considerable countervailing force, thus preventing the US and China from imposing their interests on others.