China and the United States are pursuing policies that increasingly put them at risk of conflict but, according to some experts, the United States does not currently have the will to follow through on the endeavor.
That was the consensus reached during a Sept. 7 discussion hosted by the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), a Washington-based think tank, which sought to examine the “coming conflict with China.”
“As things get tough, great powers have to take decisive actions,” said Michael Beckley, a senior fellow at AEI. “And those oftentimes bring them into greater conflict with other great powers.”
Beckley said that China, in this regard, was behaving in line with what might be expected of any nation in a similar position economic and political position. Rising powers are often faced with crises, he said, in which they could either attempt to risk exceptional action or face withering away….