The 2023 Lionel Gelber Prize: Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise

The 2023 Lionel Gelber Prize was presented on Tuesday, April 25 to author Susan L. Shirk during a hybrid event at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy. Professor Shirk delivered the Gelber Prize Lecture, which was followed by a moderated question and answer session with Janice Stein, the 2023 Gelber Prize Jury co-Chair, before being presented with the 2023 Prize by Judith Gelber, Chair of the Lionel Gelber Prize Board.

Susan Shirk’s Lionel Gelber Prize-winning book, Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise is an analysis of the leading contemporary challenge in geopolitics by a long-time close observer of China. Professor Shirk skillfully answers two critical questions for managing the 'China problem': how did we get here and where are we going? She peels away the layers of Chinese politics to uncover the divisions and coalitions that drive Chinese decisions. Much of what alarms the world today, she tells us, began not with Xi Jinping but in the log-rolling politics of overreach under Hu Jintao.

The Lionel Gelber Prize is awarded annually to the world's best non-fiction book in English on foreign affairs that seeks to deepen public debate on significant international issues. The prize is presented by the Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy at the University of Toronto.