Natalie Lichtenstein was the Inaugural General Counsel at the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB). As Chief Counsel for the 57-country negotiations that led to AIIB's founding as an international development bank, she was the principal legal adviser and drafter for its Charter. That work drew on her 30-year legal career at the World Bank, where she advised on lending operations in China and other countries for the first 20 years, and served in senior positions in institutional governance and reforms for her third decade. As a young lawyer at the US Treasury Department, she worked on development bank issues and normalization of US relations with China. She has taught Chinese law in the US since the 1980s, and consulted on Chinese legal development. She is an Adjunct Professor at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and a member of the Oxford International Organizations (OXIO) Advisory Board. She received an AB summa cum laude in East Asian Studies from Harvard University and a JD (East Asian Legal Studies) from Harvard Law School.

The Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank, first opened in 2016, is a 100 billion dollar multilateral development bank purpose-built to support infrastructure projects that enhance regional economic productivity.

Its arms reach far: in its first two years, AIIB has financed transport systems such as national motorways in Pakistan, railways in Oman, and rural roads in India; energy projects including natural gas pipelines in Azerbaijan and hydropower plants in Tajikistan; and the redevelopment of impoverished areas in Indonesia. Initiated by China, its membership is global, with regional powers from Korea to Saudi Arabia, and key players from Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

In a text that will appeal to general readers and legal specialists alike, Natalie Lichtenstein examines the Bank's mandate, investment operations, finance, governance, and institutional set up, as well as providing detailed analyses of the similarities and differences it has with other development banks - charting AIIB's story so far and anticipating its future.