Living U.S.-China Relations: From Cold War to Cold War

This book challenges the notion that the U.S. bolstered the principal strategic threat it now faces by trading away American interests, competitive position, and national security. It presents a fact-based challenge to the simplistic narrative that the U.S. bolstered the principal strategic threat it now faces by trading away American interests, competitive position, and national security. The book describes the current condition of the U.S.-China relationship and explains the last half-century that has brought us to this perilous day, focusing on the story of U.S.-China ties as the relationship between two societies rather than just two states.

Format: Hardback
Length: 440 pages
Publication date: 18 January 2024
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield

This book addresses head-on a core current critique of how the Sino-American relationship was managed across eight administrations. The essence of the critique is that naïve U.S. elites confused their hopes for democracy and a globally responsible China with the actual prospects for those desirable ends, and, in the process, unwisely traded away American interests, competitive position, and national security. In short, the U.S. bolstered the principal strategic threat that it now faces. This book is a fact-based challenge to that simplistic narrative.

Today, developments in the U.S.-China relationship are converging in a fashion that is setting off fire alarm bells. At this moment, in 2023, the underbrush is plentiful, the winds unfavorable, and the atmosphere parched. The fire hazard between America and China is increasing unlike anything we have seen in a half century. This volume describes our current condition and explains the last half-century that has brought us to this perilous day.

The defining and unique characteristic of Living U.S.-China Relations is that it tells the story of U.S.-China ties as the relationship between two societies, not just two states, and it does so through the authors lived experience over nearly sixty years. This account and explanation have nuance and avoid black and white caricature—it is empathetic.

Weight: 726g
Dimension: 236 x 158 x 29 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781538187241