China's Grand Strategy makes clear that the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) is designed to extend transportation, communication, and trade linkages between China, Eurasia, and Africa. Kashmeri (Norwich Univ.) notes 150 projects already launched, most on schedule but with some setbacks. He argues that BRI and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank are providing alternative paths to economic development for BRI-connected countries. He further understands BRI as "a Marshall Plan on steroids," referencing the US role in reconstructing Europe after WW II. The US government and media have been pushing back against China's initiatives, but some powerful Asian and European banks have made supportive statements. Nevertheless, the Trump administration sees political capital in opposing China, given a perception that BRI threatens the dominant position of the US in the existing global political economy. This anti-China position is reinforced by the US's long-standing hostility toward China's South China Sea claims and the related refusal to sign the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Seas, to which China is a signatory. Kashmeri is ultimately hopeful about rising economic power in Asia and simultaneously perceives US weakness in the absence of a grand counter strategy. Summing Up: Recommended. All levels. --Satyananda J. Gabriel, Mount Holyoke College