USChinese strategic competition is a defining factor in world politics. The prevailing narrative on USChina 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 USChina 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.
This thought-provoking study questions the prevailing narrative on USChina relations, of inevitable conflict between the two giants. It offers a fresh perspective, suggesting that the institutionalised competition, guided by strategic foresight and restraint, may actually foster stability and peace during the international order transition.
Daugiau informacijos
An argument for the possible positive effects of the institutionalised USChinese competition for stability and peace in the Asia-Pacific.
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.
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 (20222023), an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow (20172020), and a postdoctoral fellow in the Princeton-Harvard China and the World Program (20092010). 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).
