Strategic Reassurance and Resolve
U.S.-China Relations in the Twenty-First Century
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- USD 19.99
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- USD 19.99
Descripción editorial
How the United States and China can avoid future conflict and establish stable cooperative relations
After forty years of largely cooperative Sino-U.S. relations, policymakers, politicians, and pundits on both sides of the Pacific see growing tensions between the United States and China. Some go so far as to predict a future of conflict, driven by the inevitable rivalry between an established and a rising power, and urge their leaders to prepare now for a future showdown. Others argue that the deep economic interdependence between the two countries and the many areas of shared interests will lead to more collaborative relations in the coming decades.
In this book, James Steinberg and Michael O'Hanlon stake out a third, less deterministic position. They argue that there are powerful domestic and international factors, especially in the military and security realms, that could well push the bilateral relationship toward an arms race and confrontation, even though both sides will be far worse off if such a future comes to pass. They contend that this pessimistic scenario can be confidently avoided only if China and the United States adopt deliberate policies designed to address the security dilemma that besets the relationship between a rising and an established power. The authors propose a set of policy proposals to achieve a sustainable, relatively cooperative relationship between the two nations, based on the concept of providing mutual strategic reassurance in such key areas as nuclear weapons and missile defense, space and cyber operations, and military basing and deployments, while also demonstrating strategic resolve to protect vital national interests, including, in the case of the United States, its commitments to regional allies.
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Syracuse University law professor Steinberg and Brookings Institution senior fellow O'Hanlon (coauthors of Protecting the American Homeland) stress the advantages of relative cooperation between the United States and China in spite of continual threats of an arms race and military confrontation. The authors review sources of U.S. China conflict, rooted in familiar rivalries between established and rising powers, before even-handedly analyzing the two countries' differing "strategic cultures" and regimes, and conjecturing what could go wrong in Taiwan and how relations could worsen on related issues, potentially leading to war. According to the authors, if skirmishes were to escalate, it would not be automatic and easy for the U.S. to prevail in any maritime engagement. Examining nuclear, space, and cyber domains succinctly, Steinberg and O'Hanlon reject "structural pessimism" and conclude with specific recommendations on defense budgets, nuclear coexistence, space wars, and spying. The book's bland title will likely consign this well-reasoned, important book to a limited readership. However, the points Steinberg and O'Hanlon make deserve the attention of all readers interested in the connection between U.S. and China going forward.