In what is perhaps an emerging American consensus, numerous observers see an East Asia in which not only are tensions rising, but war is possible and perhaps imminent, driven mainly by a powerful and increasingly aggressive China. Fueled by maritime disputes among China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, and Southeast Asian nations and coupled with a muscular U.S. rebalancing effort toward the Pacific, many observers see the region as ripe for rivalry. The challenge is not just regional: many see an impending “Chinese century” in which China comes to replace the United States as the world's leading superpower, attempts to rewrite the rules of international politics to its own ends, and challenges many of the accepted international norms and values as embodied in the Westphalian system of international relations. The fears of an increasingly aggressive China arise from a belief that nations inevitably have rising ambitions when they become more powerful. As...
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