The Upside of US-Chinese Strategic Competition

Erscheinungsjahr 2025
ISBN: 978-1-009-58488-3
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 209 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 462 g

US–Chinese strategic competition is a defining factor in world politics. The prevailing narrative on US–China relations predicts inevitable conflicts between these two giants, potentially leading to a self-fulfilling prophecy. While fully acknowledging the inherent dangers of potential wars or military conflicts between the two powers, this book shows that competition is not necessarily detrimental. By systematically examining US–China institutional balancing across security, economic and political domains, particularly in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, this book highlights three positive externalities or unintended consequences: the revitalisation of regional institutions to address emerging challenges, unexpected collaborations between great powers (the US and China) and regional actors, and the provision of public goods by both nations. The book argues that constructive and institutionalised competition between the US and China, if managed with strategic foresight and restraint, could inadvertently lead to positive outcomes – institutional peace – in the Asia-Pacific region.

Autoren/Hrsg.

He, Kai

Feng, Huiyun

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. International Order Transition and US-China Competition: Beyond the Thucydides Trap; 2. Institutional Peace Theory: Institutionalizing US-China Competition; 3. Institutional Balancing in the Security Sub-order: Building a New Co-existent Security Architecture; 4. Institutional Balancing in the Economic Sub-order: Beyond the Spaghetti Bowl Effect; 5. Institutional Balancing in the Political Sub-order: Keeping the Political Diversity for Peace; 6. Building Institutional Peace in the Asia Pacific in the 21st Century.

Über Autor(innen)

Feng, Huiyun
Huiyun Feng is Professor of International Relations at Griffith University, Australia. Her latest co-authored books include After Hedging (with Kai He, Cambridge Elements in IR, 2023) and Contesting Revisionism: China, the United States, and the Transformation of International Order (with Steve Chan, Wenxin Hu, and Kai He, 2022).

He, Kai
Kai He is Professor of International Relations at Griffith University, Australia. He served as a non-resident Senior Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace (2022–2023), an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow (2017–2020), and a postdoctoral fellow in the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program (2009–2010).