Will America and China go to war?
The big foreign-policy question that is worrying Washington
Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? By Graham Allison. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 384 pages; $28. Scribe; £18.99.
ON JULY 2nd an American guided-missile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles (22.2km) of Triton, a tiny Chinese-occupied island in the South China Sea. It was on a “freedom of navigation” operation, sailing through disputed waters to show China that others do not accept its territorial claims. Such operations infuriate China. But they have not brought the two superpowers to blows. So far.
This article appeared in the Culture section of the print edition under the headline “Fated to fight?”
From the July 8th 2017 edition
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