Off the coast of the southern Chinese island of Hainan stands a 350-foot-tall statue of the Bodhisattva Guanyin. Facing the sea, Guanyin gazes serenely out upon the contested waters of the South China Sea. In her hand she holds a string of pearls, traditional iconography for the deity symbolizing mercy. The Guanyin of Nanshan is...
Genesis, growth, breakdown, and disintegration: such is the life cycle of a civilization proposed by Arnold Toynbee in his sweeping Study of History (1934) as the British Empire was gradually coming to terms with its waning geopolitical predominance. The idea has deeply impressed itself upon Western and non-Western minds alike. “In life and in the...
On February 22, 1946, George Kennan, a then-relatively unknown diplomat in the American Embassy in Moscow, sent his now famous “Long Telegram” to Washington. Kennan posited that the Soviet Union “learned to seek security only in patient but deadly struggle for total destruction of rival power;” consequently, in combination with Marxist dogma, Moscow’s ambitions were...
The growing influence of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in Latin America is threatening U.S. security. In the coming decade, Chinese port construction projects in Latin America may grant China access to naval lanes critical to American commerce and military operations, and investments in telecommunication infrastructure may give China insight into the extent of...
For most of modern history, the Arctic has been a geopolitical anomaly — an economically, strategically, and environmentally vital region governed primarily through diplomacy and institutionalism, not power politics. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, however, looks to have shifted the regional paradigm. Moscow’s diplomatic and economic decomposition has created a golden opportunity for China – a...
Review of Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China by Hal Brands and Michael Beckley (New York, NY: Norton and Company, 2022). America must take decisive action in the coming decade to remain the dominant global power. As China seeks to establish itself as a global hegemon bent on undermining the American-led order, the West...
During the Cold War, developing countries watched the United States benefit from four-and-a-half decades of technological productivity, economic cooperation with Western Europe, and a consensus over major foreign policy objectives. Today’s race for geopolitical superiority, however, looks radically different. Middle powers will refuse to choose between the United States and its principal adversaries; rather, they...
The current epoch is characterized by both promise and peril. This is an age of relative peace, with the stabilizing influence of the American-made and -led liberal international order preventing the recurrence of great power war since 1945. [1] This peace, coupled with economic liberalization in nations like China and India, has lifted over one...
The United States, in its accelerating competition with the People’s Republic of China, faces an adversary with a superior defense industrial capacity. Shipbuilding alone is indicative of this broader disparity: the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy is the largest naval force in the world with 340 ships, and it is expected to boast 440 ships...
The question of government intervention in the economy and business has long occupied American economists, businessmen, and lawmakers. Does the government have a duty to ensure the competitiveness of American firms? Does national security trump wealth and free trade? Since the 1980s, messages based on individual liberty and prosperity have established that businesses were better...
