Commentary
The issue of time is critical for the evolving international system, in which regional and global powers jostle for advantage and the ability to determine the future global order. Nowhere is this more true than in contemporary U.S.-China relations, through which Washington tries to dampen Beijing’s attempts to overturn the existing Pax Americana.
If time is on China’s side in its drive for global hegemony, then the United States, and all who support the current system’s rule of law, have an incentive to militarily and economically contain or even preempt China’s rise.
On the other hand, if time is not on China’s side, then those who oppose Beijing’s totalitarian vision of world politics may have the benefit of a slower and more deliberate approach to what would then be the containment of Beijing’s floundering attempts against America and our allies’ superior strategic position….