1. Those are small steps in the annals of great-power relations, but may prove early acts in a larger historical drama.

2. China and America have one advantage over history's great-power pairings: they saw the 20th century go disastrously wrong.

3. A brief caricature of great-power prickliness ensued as the Americans took charge of the airport and seemed to some others to give priority to their own flights.

4. India has its own great-power ambitions and Japan is concerned that "its influence in the region will wane, " Mr. Ho explains.

5. But Russia's policy in the Middle East, and its flirtation with China, are also part of the quest for great-power status.

6. And whatever economic and political difficulties it does experience will not be enough to stop the country's rise to great-power status.

7. Increasing integration appears likely; how it comes about, however, is uncertain and will be pivotal for the future of great-power politics in the region.

8. In China itself, the Somalia mission is seen as a natural outgrowth of its return to great-power status.

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9. Many Chinese officials and academics interviewed by the authors portrayed the aircraft carrier as a symbol of China's great-power status.

10. A particularly alarming prospect is that of Chinese and American troops facing each other in North Korea with no prearranged mechanism for defusing a great-power stand-off.

11. North Korea and Iran are where China's local imperatives and great-power interests collide.