Concerned about the implosion of Iraq? How about the disintegration of Afghanistan? Or the alienation of pretty much every international ally the United States has left?

Foreign policy wonk Michael O'Hanlon asks you to put another slice of trouble turkey onto your already overloaded plate: China.

His new book, A War LIke No Other: The Truth About China's Challenge To America, comes out in April. It starts begins with "China Huggers" and "China Sluggers," the oversimplified stances taken by (mostly conservative) Sino-phobes and (mostly liberal) folks who see China as a peaceful rival -- or even future ally.

O'Hanlon and his co-author Richard Bush take the stance that even if China might not necessarily have sinister ambitions of world conquest that must be halted by force, a blundering escalation touched off by Taiwan could drag the two world powers into a conflict that would be absolutely devastating to both sides -- even if the nuclear threshold isn't crossed.

O'Hanlon, a vocal "real world" critic of the Bush administration who analyzed the Iraq conflict from the get-go with a clear-eyed and largely apolitical perspective, writes about the coming (and possibly military) showdown between the US and China with a level of nuance useful to armchair experts and a clarity welcome to just about everyone.

The authors also take a chapter to go after the question of descalation ("From Standoff to Stand-Down"). Presupposing a change in American government to folks who read books, this book could be a treasure trove of functional ideas for a working relationship with China.

If you've got the stomach for looking 5-10 years out to the next possible foreign policy disaster, A War Like No Other is the book to read.