Dealing With China's Rise
Very interesting article from Thomas Barnett (who wrote the Pentagon’s New Map a good book searching for a paradigm for the post-Cold War world). It suggests we should co-opt China ’s rise and use them to help us in bringing stability to the world’s trouble spots. Neat strategy as long as China wants to essentially play a subordinate role to America . Even if they make money this way, will it stroke their pride in the ways needed to keep them relatively peaceful. I am not so sure on this count. China wants a spot at the table and a very commanding spot at that. I think they feel that they have been manipulated for years by outsiders like the Europeans, the Japanese, and now us. Why would they really want to help us too much? Then again, if they need economic growth to maintain their own domestic stability, perhaps, global stability really will be of utmost concern since chaos will inevitably make economic growth harder to come by. I could see this happening either way, but I think China has a great deal of pride. We need to keep that in mind always when dealing with them.
Comments