According to your review of Arvind Subramanian’s Eclipse: Living in the Shadow of China’s Economic Dominance (Washington, DC: Peterson Institute of International Economics, 2011), by 2030 China could loom as large as Britain in the 1870s and America in 1970s (“The Celestial Economy,” September 10, 2011). Apparently, his analysis is beyond reproach, with the possible exception of his gallant dismissal of potential difficulties arising from China’s ageing population. The only question that seems to remain is what kind of hegemon will China eventually be. But the review leaves out the wars that made Britain and America superpowers in their own time. Hegemony is not a matter of economics alone. Turning to the current hegemon, America would hardly be what it still is without World Wars I and II. The same holds for China. It cannot get very far without World War III. Dismal a science as it is, economics is not dismal enough. Projecting China into the limelight by 2030 amounts to projecting the entire world into bloody conflict long before the magical year. Judging by your review, Subramanian has nothing to say about such a nasty glitch.