Destined for War: can America and China escape Thucydides's Trap? - Softcover

Graham Allison

4.2

6,161 ratings by Goodreads

9781911344513: Destined for War: can America and China escape Thucydides's Trap?

Softcover

ISBN 10: 191134451X ISBN 13: 9781911344513

Publisher: Scribe Publications, 2017

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“Superb . . . One of the most insightful and thought-provoking books I have ever read on the most important relationship in the world.”—General (Ret.) David Petraeus

“Allison is one of the keenest observers of international affairs around.”—Joe Biden

China and the United States are heading toward a war neither wants. The reason is Thucydides’s Trap: when a rising power threatens to displace a ruling one, violence is the likeliest result. Over the past 500 years, these conditions have occurred sixteen times; war broke out in twelve. Today, as an unstoppable China approaches an immovable America and both Xi Jinping and Donald Trump promise to make their countries “great again,” the seventeenth case looks grim. A trade conflict, cyberattack, Korean crisis, or accident at sea could easily spark a major war.

In Destined for War, eminent Harvard scholar Graham Allison masterfully blends history and current events to explain the timeless machinery of Thucydides’s Trap—and to explore the painful steps that might prevent disaster today.

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About the Author:

GRAHAM ALLISON is director of Harvard Kennedy School's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs and the best-selling author of LeeKuan Yew: The Grand Master's Insights on China, the United States, and the World; Nuclear Terrorism: The Ultimate Preventable Catastrophe; and Essence of Decision: Explaining the Cuban Missile Crisis. Founding dean of the Harvard Kennedy School, Dr. Allison has served as Assistant Secretary of Defense and advised the secretaries of defense under every president from Reagan to Obama. He lives in Belmont, Massachusetts.

Review:

“Graham Allison is one of the keenest observers of international affairs around. He consistently brings his deep understanding of history’s currents to today’s most difficult challenges and makes our toughest foreign policy dilemmas accessible to experts and everyday citizens alike. That’s why I regularly sought his counsel both as a senator and as vice president. In Destined for War, Allison lays out one of the defining challenges of our time—managing the critical relationship between China and the United States.”—Joe Biden, former vice president of the United States

“Can the United States avoid confrontation with China? That is the geopolitical question of our age. In most cases, Thucydides was right: when a new power arises in the world, it results in a clash with the dominant power. This important and fascinating book extracts lessons for how we can avoid such a confrontation.”—Walter Isaacson, author ofSteve Jobsand The Innovators

“One of the most insightful and thought-provoking books I have ever read on the most important relationship in the world: the US and China. If Graham Allison is right—and I think he is—China and the United States must heed the lessons in this superb study in order to build a strategic relationship that avoids a war which neither side would win.”—General (Ret.) David Petraeus, chairman of the KKR Global Institute, former director of the CIA, and former commander of US Central Command

“Thucydides’s Trap identifies a cardinal challenge to world order: the impact of a rising power on a ruling power. I read the book with great interest. I can only hope that the US-China relationship becomes the fifth case to resolve itself peacefully, rather than the thirteenth to result in war.”—Henry Kissinger, former United States secretary of state

“A provocative thesis on one of today’s most pressing foreign policy issues and a page-turner of the first order, Destined For War is a must read. Professor Allison writes with the propulsive narrative drive appropriate for such an immediate and danger-fraught topic. I can only hope that all senior policy experts read this timely book to prevent our country from falling into the trap Professor Allison so ably warns us against.”—Christopher Reich, best-selling author of Invasion of Privacy, The Patriots Club,and Numbered Account

“Do China and America want war? No. Might they be compelled into conflict by severe structural stress? Yes. Thankfully, Allison charts an essential course to avoid a catastrophic collision. Destined for War will be studied and debated for decades.”—Kevin Rudd, former prime minister of Australia

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