| Summary/Abstract |
How should the United States respond to the China challenge? The Donald Trump administration’s 2018 National Defense Strategy predicted that “as China continues its economic and military ascendance … [it will seek] regional hegemony in the near-term and displacement of the United States to achieve global preeminence in the future.”Footnote1 Subsequently, President Joe Biden asserted in an April 2021 address to Congress that the US rivalry with China is about who will “win the 21st century.”Footnote2 Many scholars and policymakers advocate active balancing policies, including the creation of a US-led Indo-Pacific coalition system. For years, John Mearsheimer, a leading international relations theorist, has urged US leaders “to form a balancing coalition with as many of China’s neighbors as possible.” “The ultimate aim,” he argues, “would be to build an alliance structure along the lines of NATO” against the Soviet Union during the Cold War.Footnote3 Another prominent scholar of international relations, Graham Allison, concurs: “When it comes to doing what it can [to balance China], Washington should focus above all on its alliances and partnerships … who together will constitute a correlation of forces to which China will have to adjust.”Footnote
|