As the debates rage along the Potomac regarding the Iran nuclear framework, ISIS, the Ukraine crisis, the rise of Chinese power and a half dozen other important U.S. foreign policy challenges, how better to think about these problems than to seek council from the two most impressive strategists of the post World War II era – the late Lee Kuan Yew and Henry Kissinger.

In the space of less than four decades Chinese companies have moved from outright imitation to pure business innovation, in parallel with and contributing to the country’s extraordinary growth. The ‘three phases’ of this shift, while not strictly sequential, provide a narrative of relentless refinement of China’s innovative capacity.

China talks about a ‘peaceful rise,’ even as it probes for weakness.

Yesterday the Chairmen and Ranking members of the Senate Armed Services Committee (McCain and Reed) and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Corker and Menendez) sent a noteworthy letter to Secretaries Kerry and Carter about growing Chinese hegemony in the South China Sea.