Last week, I attended a conversation between retired general David Petraeus and political scientist, professor, and author Graham Allison. They spoke at the 92Y Cultural Institution and Community Center on Manhattan’s Upper East Side about Allison’s new book, Destined For War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’ Trap? Their conversation was both stimulating and concerning, as I left that night with a new concern for where our relations are heading with the up-and-coming economic powerhouse that is China.
China’s rise over the past decade is undeniable, even to the most stubborn champions of United States dominance in the world. They are now the largest economy in the world, are flexing their military and strategic might in the Pacific, and are positioned to challenge the U.S. as a superpower. This emergence is all the more concerning as one begins to understand Thucydides’ Trap, an ancient Greek metaphor for the dynamics of a rising power threatening to displace a ruling power.
