Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
China's internal dynamism, with all of its civil unrest and inefficiencies, to say nothing
of an economic slowdown, creates external ambitions. Empires are often not sought con-
sciously. Rather, as states become stronger, they develop needs and—counterintuitively—a
whole new set of insecurities that lead them to expand in an organic fashion. Consider
the American experience. Under the stewardship of some of its more forgettable pres-
idents—Rutherford B. Hayes, James Garfield, Chester Alan Arthur, Benjamin Harrison,
