NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • The fast-paced inside story of America’s plunge into a volatile
rivalry with the other two great nuclear powers—Xi Jinping’s China and Vladimir Putin’s
Russia—from the Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist and bestselling author of The Perfect Weapon
“[A] cogent revealing account of how a generation of American officials have grappled with
dangerous developments in the post-Cold War era . . . vividly captures Washington.”— The New
York Times (Editors’ Choice) ONE OF NPR’S BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR For years the United
States was confident that the newly democratic Russia and increasingly wealthy China could be
lured into a Western-led order that promised prosperity and relative peace—so long as they
agreed to Washington’s terms. By the time America emerged from the age of terrorism it was
clear that this had been a fantasy. Now the three powers are engaged in a high-stakes struggle
for military economic political and technological supremacy with nations around the world
pressured to take sides. Yet all three are discovering that they are maneuvering for influence
in a far more turbulent world than they imagined. Based on a remarkable array of interviews
with top officials from five presidential administrations U.S. intelligence agencies foreign
governments and tech companies Sanger unfolds a riveting narrative spun around the era’s
critical questions: Will the mistakes Putin made in his invasion of Ukraine prove his undoing
and will he reach for his nuclear arsenal—or will the West’s famously short attention span
signal Kyiv’s doom? Will Xi invade Taiwan? Will both men deepen their partnership to undercut
America’s dominance? And can a politically dysfunctional America still lead the world? Taking
readers from the battlefields of Ukraine—where Russia uses bullets from North Korea and drones
from Iran—to the Taiwan headquarters where the world’s most advanced computer chips are
produced and on to tense debates in the White House Situation Room New Cold Wars is a
remarkable first-draft history chronicling America’s return to superpower conflict the choices
that lie ahead and what is at stake for the United States and the world.
