In this volume editor Emilian Kavalski tackles the gargantuan task of providing a complete summary of China's contemporary foreign policy. With 38 authors providing 33 chapters on topics ranging from the legacy of history to the People's Republic of China's (PRC's) recent forays into outer space, the book seeks to provide a “comprehensive overview and a much-needed reconsideration of the conceptual and policy outlines of Beijing's nascent global agency” (p. 19).

The work is admirable in scope, but, as with its topic, size and variety bring their own problems. The chapters are very independent of one another and of varying quality. They are often repetitive, with inconsistent approaches and applications of disciplinary theory and history. The structure means that there is at times little of a common thread or argument tying the pieces together. Kavalski attempts to overcome this with a solid introduction and epilogue, and by structuring the work around six broad areas in Chinese foreign policy: historical and analytical perspectives, domestic sources, international impact, bilateral interactions, regional strategies and outstanding issues.

A highlight of part one's exploration of historical and analytical perspectives is Mingjiang Li's convincing argument that superpower status is the main goal in China's foreign policy, a conclusion that resonates well with Lai-Ha Chan's assertion that independence and agency have been the unchanging drivers of Chinese international relations since 1949. These are complemented by Dingding Chen's useful introduction to mainstream international relations theories as they relate to China and Huiyun Feng's use of operational code analysis to argue that China's leaders have mostly not advanced revisionist views.

Part two, focusing on domestic drivers, is likewise strong. Kingsley Edney and Baogang He provide a needed and nuanced discussion of different forms and nationalism in China and how the government may harness it. Winberg Chai uses interviews with Deng Xiaoping and Jiang Zemin to show engagingly how ideology has been created and leveraged by the CCP, but is less useful on how it has been applied to foreign policy. Yee-Kuang Heng's well-researched chapter on the ambiguous and opaque role of the People's Liberation Army (PLA) in decision-making asserts isolated operational agency and a diminished strategic role for the military.

Part three focuses broadly on international impacts. John Lee details the importance of the Chinese diaspora in providing FDI, while James Reilly's thoughtful chapter on soft power questions the ability of an authoritarian government such as the CCP to effectively deploy soft power, and notes that its efforts have been more successful in the developing world than the developed.

Parts four (bilateral relations) and five (regional strategies) are general less useful. The chapters provide good specific background at times, but most of the analyses are too brief to offer more than the most cursory introduction. Jing-dong Yuan's chapter on Sino-Indian relations stands out for its nuanced analysis of how both parties desire a more multipolar world, and is honest about the many difficulties preventing them from cooperating more to bring this about. Jian Yang's piece on Sino-US relations convincingly argues that China has consistently been reactive to American policy, mercurial though this may have been, and that the PRC is still essentially a status quo actor. Key themes from the chapters in the regional section include the importance of economic development and countering the United States.

Part six is a catchall of major outstanding issues. Zhiming Chen's chapter on Beijing's policy towards Taiwan provides a detailed history of the twists and turns of China–Taiwan relations, laying out clearly how the PRC's current strategy has evolved into one of “creeping reunification” through supporting the status quo (p. 336). One of the book's most interesting sections is Sheng Ding's on China's internet policy. He identifies internet technologies as tools of expression that are making censorship more difficult for China, and argues that the CCP's focus on control hurts prospects for economic cooperation and weakens its legitimacy. It will be interesting to see how this thesis holds up in light of the Party's successes in co-opting internet technology in recent years, but Ding's chapter is well written and thought provoking.

In a concluding epilogue editor Emilian Kavalski does an admirable job of teasing common themes from the chapters. He highlights nationalism, minority issues, economic development, the Sino-US and Taiwan relationships, and energy resources as the most crucial drivers of China's foreign policy, and uses Brantly Womack's “logic of relationships” framework to argue that China's foreign policy is a struggle for recognition that is better understood on its own terms than through the application of norm- or power-based concepts.

Overall the book is a useful, if uneven, survey of the many influences on contemporary Chinese foreign policy. As a course tool some of the more notable chapters would serve as a concise introduction to topics beyond the scope of in-depth coverage, but as a whole the work is too shallow and too expensive to serve as a primary textbook. Kavalski seeks an analytically eclectic approach that ends up being simply eclectic, as the work rarely puts forward any comprehensive understanding of causal mechanisms in Chinese foreign policy beyond the specific focus of each chapter. The book really does try to hit every major facet of Chinese foreign policy, but without a central argument or analysis to weight the various factors and present a coherent picture the vast scale is wasted. The work has many good components, but does not add up to more than the sum of its parts.