In the international political economy of the last two millennia, there tends to be one state leading the world as the foremost producer of energy and new technology. In Racing to the Top, William R. Thompson and Leila Zakhirova argue that the US and China, like previous leading countries, rely on energy transition, or the development of alternative energy, in order to make new technology relatively inexpensive to develop and to fuel. While the US has historically held the lead, its edge in the global energy economy appears to be eroding, and as energy leadership diminishes, so does the country's position in world politics. Thompson and Zakhirova take a long view in order to show what will be necessary for a new power to emerge as the system leader, then map a path forward for energy policy. Informed by a deep knowledge of world history, political economy, and environmental technology, this book is the first complete overview of energy transitions over the past thousand years.

Climate change, energy transition, U.S. relative decline, and Chinese ascent are all ongoing processes. Their linkages, however, have not yet been fully defined. Climate change makes transitioning from non-renewable fuels to alternative energy a key area for any country to develop, and, in the past, energy transitions have been central to the rise of new system leaders. In our time, the likelihood of a successful response to global warming and effective systemic leadership hinge on which state leads in replacing carbon for non-carbon energy sources in fueling their economies.