While the acknowledgment of China's comparative success at a local level is welcome, the book is nonetheless weak in its discussion of the differences between Western and Chinese strategies for development. A single paragraph is devoted to explaining that one is "largely state-led" and the other "private sector driven", and that "both paradigms seem capable of engendering growth". This is hardly groundbreaking, and at a most basic level fails even to recognise that a fundamental part of China's incredible economic success over the last two decades has been a well-orchestrated merger of the two frameworks into a dynamic hybrid. 

Furthermore, while Moyo does refer to the 2008 financial crisis, the links between it and the current eurozone crisis — and China's race for resources — are not made. China's appetite for resources is not only a question of feeding its population and economy, its "shopping spree" is also inextricably linked to its creditor position with regard to the US Treasury, and the inherent risks of holding such vast cash reserves. So while it's undoubtedly catchy to state that China's race for resources is a "race from [internal] revolution", this is to skip over the interdependence of domestic, macroeconomic and foreign policies in a world in which exchange rates, current account balances and national debts are inextricably tied to trade and investment decisions. So even a brief analysis of "Chimerica" and the new relationship of the big two fails to take the analysis to its logical conclusion, that the two countries enjoy equal status, and cannot do without each other. As such, the reader is bound to feel — at least from the point of view of grand economic geopolitics — slightly short-changed.

Dambisa Moyo does, quite rightly, question the relevance and effectiveness of existing international institutions in meeting the challenge. Sadly, the final pages of the book, which set out the "way forward", fail to provide anything of the sort, rather falling back on a nebulous idealism: national preferences are said to be superseding communal interest, and state meddling in the form of protectionism and subsidies confusing the investment climate; what is needed is a global agency focusing solely on resource scarcity. Despite calls for cooperation, sanctions are the chosen tool to achieve a normalisation of resource availability, a tactic that, the writer suggests, might not meet with universal success. Perhaps most strangely, Dambisa chooses this moment to introduce new topics — such as a call for more GM crops and energy efficiency — and what might otherwise be a strategy descends into a brief list of bullet points.

China's race for resources and global supply is a subject undoubtedly in need of academic treatment, and the aim of Dambisa Moyo's book is clearly to make Western readers sit up and take notice of China's activities, a worthwhile attempt in an increasingly interdependent world. Unfortunately however, Winner Take All fails adequately to tackle the subject. The book provides a grand sweep over the world of commodities, and the world's most populous country's effect on global demand and available resources.  However, it is equally sweeping in its treatment of China's interrelationship with the West, and fails to come up with anything but a lacklustre vision for meeting the clear and present danger of resource scarcity in the coming years.