About the book
ISBN: 9780197521946
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.
