Opinion | US finding force is as vital as words in its territorial game with China
- Pentagon rallies regional partners to coax China towards path of international rules, focusing on nations that resist Chinese intrusion
- Beijing, too, has upped its activities as it tries to deter and expel an American military presence
“There is no judge more equitable than cannon. They go directly to the goal and they are not corruptible,” a young officer in King Louis XIV of France’s army once remarked.
Much of modern European history, as Robert Massie explains, was defined by how “rivalries, the drawing of frontiers, possession of cities, fortresses, trade routes and colonies, and ultimately the destinies of kingdoms and empires … were decided by war”.
In a world where war is the ultimate arbiter, “morality played a peripheral role”, yet diplomacy still mattered. Great powers not only brandished and deployed their military muscle, but also used diplomatic statecraft to isolate their rivals and strengthen their relative position.
In a troubling sign of the intensifying competition, China has stepped up its efforts to deter, intercept and push out American military presence in its adjacent waters.