Harvard scholar Graham Allison says China’s rising influence sets it at odds with the US’ notion of itself as a superpower and both need to take a step back
Graham Allison, who said Beijing and Washington could fall into what he called the Thucydides Trap – where a rising power threatens to eclipse a rival and conflict may result – told the South China Morning Post that the two were “in a dangerous period”.
Graham Allison created the idea of the Thucydides Trap, which could swallow competing powers. Photo: Handout
“We need a new strategic concept for the relationship between US and China, because the old idea from an American perspective is that the strategic partnership has collapsed,” said Allison, who was recently in Beijing to attend a forum that fostered exchanges between Chinese and Western academics and policymakers.
“Unless we can find a new strategic concept that is good enough for each, we will continue rifting in this Thucydides dynamic which will be a very dangerous period,” said Allison, a professor at the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. “And I think it is a dangerous period now … and it’s likely to get more dangerous if we don’t become more imaginative.”
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Relations between the two powers have been under increasing strain on trade, political and military fronts. While they agreed to a 90-day trade war truce this month, the risk of conflicts remains.
US Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein will announce a China-related national security law enforcement action on Thursday. It is expected to involve criminal charges against hackers linked to the Chinese government.
US Vice-President Mike Pence has accused China of interfering in US domestic politics and warned Beijing that aggression would not be tolerated in the Indo-Pacific region. Military vessels from both nations have had an increasing number of close calls in the disputed South China Sea.
https://www.scmp.com/news/china/diplomacy/article/2178905/thucydides-trap-author-says-china-and-us-must-work-together-and