A significant book is set to be released at the end of this month by Yale University Press, authored by researchers Van Jackson and Michael Brenes, titled:
The Rivalry Peril: How Great-Power Competition Threatens Peace and Weakens Democracy
This book addresses the risks of the competitive policy the United States is adopting against China, focusing on its implications for democracy, peace, and prosperity, and proposes a more rational approach to these issues.
For nearly a decade, the United States has shaped its foreign and domestic policies to constrain China’s military power and economic growth. Such an approach has proven misleading and has significantly underreported the costs and risks that geopolitical rivalry imposes on economic well-being, the quality of democracy, and ultimately threatens global stability.
The book reveals the trade-offs and pitfalls involved in prolonged competition with China and explains how this policy exacerbates inequality, fosters xenophobia, and increases the likelihood of violence worldwide. Furthermore, this approach distracts from the priority of addressing issues such as climate change, while simultaneously undermining democratic pluralism and sacrificing freedom in the name of triumphing over the “other” enemy.
The book is structured into six chapters. In the first chapter, the authors explain the history of great-power rivalry in a global context since the 18th century, illustrating how such rivalries have rendered the world less democratic and just, especially during the Cold War. They delve deeply into the pre-Cold War history to highlight the significant gap between policymakers’ perceptions of the Cold War and the actual effects of the imagined “long peace” on the American public and the world. They examine how the Cold War reinforced racial and gender hierarchies at home, heightened economic insecurity, obstructed democratic pluralism, and fueled the radicalization of right-wing forces in American politics, along with triggering nuclear crises, proxy wars, and American support for authoritarian regimes in the developing world.
In the second chapter, this historical analysis is expanded to cover the era of “unipolar moment” post-Cold War. America’s pursuit of supremacy after 1991 led to the abandonment of the “peace dividend” and a more restrained foreign policy, resulting in excesses and negative reactions that shaped China’s behavior.
Although the United States was willing to establish a cooperative relationship with China during the presidencies of Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, failures in the War on Terror following September 11, 2001, generated skepticism in China regarding its stability amidst American supremacy. This uncertainty, combined with the financial crisis of 2008, pushed China to enhance its regional and global influence both economically and militarily. The shift in China’s policy convinced American policymakers that cooperation with China was no longer feasible and that the world had entered a new era of great-power competition. The chapter assesses the dangers of rivalry today and how it produces darker and more perilous political conditions in the United States and globally.
The third chapter analyzes the corrosive effects of geopolitical competition on political democracy at home, detailing how the “Chinese threat” has become a political topic that divides society and empowers reactionary voices opposing democracy. The challenge posed by China does not unify American politics. By treating China as a Cold War-like opponent, great-power rivalry has led to a noticeable increase in anti-Asian violence, restrictions on civil liberties, and denials of surveillance and investigations against Chinese Americans, alongside growing paranoia about a fifth column and domestic enemies.
Chapter four focuses on the threat that rivalry poses to American economic prosperity, linking Sino-American competition to the rising oligarchic political economy that leaves most workers economically insecure. This chapter illustrates how strategic competition drives national investments in advanced technologies that shape industrial policy but ultimately redistributes wealth upwards, supporting large corporations and higher wages for a small, elite technocratic class with advanced degrees and privileged positions in the economy. These economic policies provide nothing for the working majority.
Chapter five presents the authors’ vision for China’s current state and its future, discussing how the core issue facing China lies in the inequalities supported by the state system for capital accumulation in the global economy, and how Sino-American competition fuels ethnic nationalism in both countries.
The chapter also explains the risks of great-power competition worldwide, noting how rivalry erodes the improving or peaceful influences stemming from economic interdependence, diplomacy, and multilateral cooperation.
Chapter six addresses the question, “If not competition, then what?” It identifies elements of a practical grand strategy aimed at achieving peace and democracy instead of nationalistic fervor and war.
Addressing the root causes of global insecurity is essential if we want peace and democracy to have a genuine chance in this world. Policymakers and the public must better understand how great-power competition destabilizes global politics; empowers reactionary forces in the U.S. and abroad; and leads to increased racial conflicts.
This book serves as a crucial critique of current American foreign policy and offers a significant outlook on a more rational and democratic strategy for reducing tensions and achieving effective diplomacy.
