From MIT Center for International Studies website:
U.S. China policy in the beginning of the twenty-first century is greater than the sum of diplomatic initiatives and presidential statements. Since China’s rise is reshaping global politics, U.S. policy should be evaluated in this larger context. Washington must not only handle its relationship with China on a day-to-day basis, but must also lay the foundations for a long-term response to its rise.
The Bush administration came to office primed to address traditional, great power politics and to reassert American leadership globally, and has successfully enhanced deterrence of contemporary Chinese military threats. Yet, if Washington’s China policy is to contribute to the wider goal of sustaining the U.S.-led international order that has prevailed since the 1940s, the administration will have to adopt a broader set of policies than has been practiced in recent years. Although the Bush administration has managed tactical, short-term bilateral relations with efficiency and occasional deftness, the broader strategic issue of a rising China has not been adequately confronted.[Full Text]
Christopher P. Twomey is assistant professor of national security affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California.
