ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book approaches to the analysis of historical processes by privileging the understanding of long-term change, based upon the discovery of several epistemological commonalities between a choice of Chinese and Western authors. It deals with the analysis of power by one of the most influential Chinese economists, Hu Angang. The book presents a historical analysis of the development of American power. It starts with the identification of the major components of the ideology that developed since the arrival of the first English colonizers, up to the contemporary revision and adaptation of that ideology to the changing place of the US in the international system. The book starts with an analysis of the development of Chinese values and culture that are still orienting its foreign policy today, and evaluates how China has been successful in integrating traditional values with those imported from the West.
