China's fascination with Paul Kennedy

Last week at the Grano Speakers Series in Toronto I hosted superstar U.S. academic Paul Kennedy.  

More than a few BNN watchers will no doubt have a dog-eared copy of Professor Kennedy’s The Rise and Fall of Great Powers somewhere on their bookshelves. At last count this international bestseller has sold over two million copies and has been translated into 23 languages.

Kennedy told me that these days Rise and Fall is selling more copies in China than anywhere else in the world. I expect the Chinese are far more interested in reading up on Kennedy’s analysis of potential sources of America’s declining global influence than searching out signposts for their own seemingly inevitable rise as a great power.

On the topic of China, Kennedy sat down for an interview on SqueezePlay and made a powerful counterintuitive case for why an appreciating yuan and a depreciating U.S. dollar is anything but in America’s geopolitical interest.

Have a listen…