Competitive Strategies for the 21st Century

The United States today faces the most complex and challenging security environment in recent memory--even as it must deal with growing constraints on its ability to respond to threats. Its most consequential challenge is the rise of China, which increasingly has the capability to deny the U.S. access to areas of vital national interest and to undermine the alliances that have served as the foundation of regional stability for over half a century. The United States must respond with a far-reaching strategy for dealing with China; one that includes but is not limited to military means, and one that fully includes U.S. allies and friends in the region. Developing Competitive Strategies for the 21st Century: Theory, History, and Practiceuses the theory and practice of peacetime great-power strategic competition to derive recommendations for just such a strategy. Leading scholars and practitioners from the United States, Great Britain, and Australia, examine the theory of peacetime strategic competition and explain the practice of competitive strategies during the Cold War. They assess the U.S.-China military balance in depth and consider the role of America's allies in the region, and they explore strategies that the United States could adopt to improve its strategic position relative to China over the long term.

Thomas Mahnken is Jerome E. Levy Chair of Economic Geography and National Security at the U.S. Naval War College and a Visiting Scholar at the Philip Merrill Center for Strategic Studies at Johns Hopkins University. His most recent book is Technology and the American Way of War Since 1945.