Clash of Cognitions: The United States, China, And Strategic Thinking (Viewpoint Essay‪)‬

Editor's Note: The China-Taiwan conflict has currently receded from the forefront of global threats to peace and stability. This provides an opportunity for the United States to broaden its perspective and to build better long-term relations with China; but, this essay argues, the two countries' fundamentally differing strategic mindsets makes this extremely difficult.--Ed. Summary: The United States and China "think differently." Although this assertion is readily acknowledged by most U.S. strategists, it also seems to get just as quickly discounted. While the reasons for this discount are debatable, the result is not: The differences rarely get explicated and/or considered in terms of how they comparatively manifest themselves in each country's strategic mindset. This article sketches out some of those key differences and argues that China's more "synthetic" mindset--vice America's more "analytic" one--appears to be better suited to an increasingly synthetic (complex, interconnected, and interdependent) international system. In turn, it argues that the United States would probably do well to begin the admittedly hard task of fostering its own more synthetic worldview.