Two thousand years ago, China and India had a 59 percent share of the world economy. They then fell spectacularly from grace. But by 2050, the world will be theirs again. What will that mean for the West?

The rise of China and India raises fundamental questions about the structure of the world economy and the balance of global geopolitical power. Will China still be a repressive and undemocratic regime, embracing free-market economics but only when it suits? How aggressive a superpower will it be? And what about India, whose economic resurgence is built on a highly educated workforce? David Smith analyzes the ways in which the world is tilting rapidly eastward and examines all the implications of the shift in global power to Beijing and Delhi—a shift that will creep up on us before we know it.