US-China Relations in the 21st Century: Power Transition and Peace

US-China Relations in the 21st Centuryaddresses the bilateral relations of these two nations on an international, domestic, societal and individual level between 1990 and 2005. Peaceful power shift remains a central dilemma in world politics, since historically power transition from a dominant nation to a challenger has been associated with international wars. This book examines whether China and the US can learn from history and manage a potential power transition peacefully. Grounding his research on contemporary US-China relations with thorough theoretical, historical and policy exploration, Zhu selects two important cases of power transitions in history as the background for this study: power rivalry between Great Britain and Germany (1871-1914) that led to World War I, and the peaceful power transition from Great Britain to the United States (1865-1945). US-China Relations in the 21st Centurycontributes to the current IR theory by proposing a new analytical model on global powertransition and provides recommendations for peacefully handling a potential power transition from the US to China in the future. This original and comprehensive study is essential reading for scholars of US and Chinese foreign policy, world politics and international relations.

Zhiqun Zhu is Assistant Professor of International Political Economy and Diplomacy at the University of Bridgeport, USA.