【About the book】
Offers a new perspective on the Sino-US relationship and dispels the prevailing pessimism, especially that of realist and liberal international relations theories
Explores Chinese concepts and perspectives on the relationship between the US and China
Analyzes the mistakes China and America made in their mutual relations since the Obama administration and explains their causes and consequences
Develops a holistic approach to conflict management and resolution based on a sophisticated staging of deterrence, reassurance, and diplomacy
Competition between America and China has intensified since 2009, creating even greater risks of conflict. Why is this so, and what can be done about it? Feng Zhang and Ned Lebow identify the mistakes China and America made in their mutual relations and explain their causes and consequences. Drawing on international relations theory and historical lessons they develop a holistic approach to conflict management and resolution based on a sophisticated staging of deterrence, reassurance, and diplomacy. Minimal deterrence combined with multiple forms of reassurance and sustained diplomatic efforts to reduce or finesse key areas of conflict offer a promising pathway for America and China to enhance their security and buttress their self-esteem.
【About the author】
Richard Ned Lebow was born in France in 1941 and grew up in New York City and a Long Island suburb. He lives in London and Cortona, Tuscany, is married, the father of three children, and the grandfather of two. He is Professor of
International Political Theory in the War Studies Department of King’s College London, Bye-Fellow of Pembroke College, University of Cambridge, and James O. Freedman Presidential Professor, Emeritus at Dartmouth College He is a Fellow of the British Academy and recipient of honorary degrees in France, Greece, and the U.S. In an academic career now in its seventh decade he has authored or coauthored 40 books and over 400 scholarly articles and book chapters. Ned has made scholarly contributions to international relations, comparative politics, political theory, political psychology, history, classics, and philosophy of science. Ned writes short stories and translates opera libretti into English from German, French, and Italian. He is an avid hiker, runner, and mean tennis player. His major frustration is his inability to date to find an agent or publisher for his two novels: a murder mystery, and a counterfactual, political-historical account of the Cold War that goes after conspiracy theories.
Feng Zhang is an Associate Research Scholar at Yale University’s MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies. He specializes in China’s foreign policy, Asian international relations, and international relations theory. He is the author of Chinese Hegemony: Grand Strategy and International Institutions in East Asian History (Stanford, 2015) and A Neighbor of Neighbors: China’s Policy toward Afghanistan, 1949-2024 (Palgrave, forthcoming). He coauthored two books with Richard Ned Lebow: Taming Sino-American Rivalry (Oxford, 2020) and Justice and International Order: East and West (Oxford, 2022). His peer-reviewed articles have appeared in a range of disciplinary and area studies journals, and his commentary has been featured in outlets including Foreign Affairs and Foreign Policy. He previously held faculty positions at Tsinghua University, Murdoch University, the Australian National University, and the South China University of Technology. In 2024, he was a visiting scholar at Yale Law School’s Paul Tsai China Center.
【Table of Contents】
Chapter 1: Thinking Differently About Conflict Management
Chapter 2: Imagining the Worst, Hoping for the Best
Chapter 3: American Mistakes
Chapter 4: Chinese Mistakes
Chapter 5: Deterrence
Chapter 6: Reassurance
Chapter 7: Diplomacy
Chapter 8: Conclusions
References
【Reviews and Awards】
A useful introduction to theoretical questions and methods in international relations. - M. G. Roskin, CHOICE
In Taming Sino-American Rivalry, Zhang and Lebow, by drawing on extensive sources, engage with an abundance of debates on the role of social factors in Sino American relations. The authors have meticulously offered a fresh perspective on how both the US and China can formulate a diplomacy of normalization through trusted catalysts to manage conflicts gradually and adopt a sustainable type of diplomacy. - Siavash Chavoshi, Asian Affairs
Analyzes competition and conflict between the United States and China since 2009, explaining why it has intensified since the Barack Obama administration and how leaders in both countries can develop a constructive strategic framework to ease competition, manage conflict, and reach an accommodation without giving up any of their meaningful goals. - Journal of Economic Literature (Volume 59, no. 1)
This book empirically refutes the theoretical assumptions of balance of power and convincingly argues why policymakers are crucial in managing strategic rivalry between great powers. Chinese and American policymakers can benefit from reading its suggestion of adopting special diplomatic measures to manage the current China-US completion. - YanXuetong, Distinguished Professor,Tsinghua University and Foreign Member, Russian Academy of Sciences
In engaging and compelling study of the US-China relationship that brings people and politics back into the picture. Zhang and Lebow force the reader to reexamine the evidence and question long-held assumptions, in the process delivering a fresh and novel argument about what has gone wrong in the relationship between these two great powers and what can be done to fix it. - Elizabeth C. Economy, C.V., Starr Senior Fellow and Director of Asia Studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and author of The Third Revolution: Xi Jinping and the New Chinese State (Oxford)
The boldest chapters of Taming Sino-American Rivalry fearlessly critique both American and Chinese foreign policy 'mistakes.' Zhang and Lebow put forward what must be one of the most even-handed critiques of the two countries' policies ever attempted. - The Air Force Journal of Indo-Pacific Affairs
【Product details】
Publisher : Oxford University Press
Publication date : July 15, 2020
Edition : 1st
Language : English
Print length : 272 pages
ISBN-10 : 0197521959
ISBN-13 : 978-0197521953
