Asia’s answer to the Thucydides Trap
Asia’s strategic traditions remind us that the greatest victories are often the wars that never happen.
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Given the tensions between Washington and Beijing – and the consequences for the rest of the world – alternative ways of thinking deserve consideration.
PHOTO: AFP
Karishma Vaswani
A historical analogy from Ancient Greece has become the go-to maxim for understanding the rivalry between the US and China. Asia’s classical thinkers may offer a better alternative.
When China’s President Xi Jinping welcomed US President Donald Trump to Beijing in May, he once again reached for a phrase he has invoked for years: the Thucydides Trap, popularised by Harvard political scientist Graham Allison in the early 2010s. Could the two powers, Xi asked, overcome this Greek conundrum and forge a new kind of relationship?
