From Global Asia, via Nautilus Institute’s Policy Forum Online:
… As the dominant country in the Asia-Pacific, the U.S. faces a crucial strategic choice: it can use its superior diplomatic, political, military and economic power to negotiate a historic Framework Agreement with China that achieves a fundamental shift in the paradigm of U.S.-China relations. Or, to the contrary, the U.S. can narrowly focus on protecting its domestic market and bolstering its military presence in east Asia in expectation of an inevitable conflict with China.
To the so-called “realists” in the China Threat School, a foreign policy of the kind proposed here, based on enlightened self-interest, may seem foolish and na√Øve. But, in fact, a policy which relies on American power to facilitate a long-lasting framework for cooperation with China, is in the best interests of the united states, now and in the future. [Full Text]
Donald G. Gross is a nonresident senior fellow at the Atlantic Council of the United States.