Opinion | In a fragile world, what does the US have to gain from a new cold-war conflict with China?
- Instead of starting another cold war or falling into a Thucydides Trap, the US – and China – should rise above the kind of great power rivalry that has led to bloodshed in the past and address the perilous state of global affairs
There is a consensus that Washington has woken up to the Chinese threat, and that a new cold war is inevitable – if, in fact, it has not yet begun.
Regardless of the different paths that the United States and China have taken, John Mearsheimer projected that China’s journey to modernisation would mimic America’s march to hegemony. In his theory of offensive realism, the international system is anarchic and states are driven to seek world domination. Graham Allison has also warned of a Thucydides Trap, in which the great power rivalry inevitably ends in bloodshed.
The bottom line is that America will not tolerate competitors. That it must win in the end is taken as a truism.
There are two primary ways to deal with China. US President Donald Trump has pursued an ambitious policy that went beyond containment. He tried to roll back China’s economy by targeting its technology sector.
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