The gathering storm: China's challenge to US power in Asia

Chinese Journal of International Politics

Volumn 3, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 381-396

  Mearsheimer, John J ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 80052140507     PISSN: 17508916     EISSN: 17508924     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1093/cjip/poq016     Document Type: Article

References (37)

1. Department of Defence, Australian Government, Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century: Force 2030, p. 49. http://www.defence.gov.au/whitepaper/docs/defence_white_ paper_2009.pdf, accessed on October 20, 2010.
2. Dale C. Copeland, The Origins of Major War (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000), Chapter 1; Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, ed. C. B. Macpherson (Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1985), pp. 94-99, 131, 169-70, 194; John J. Mearsheimer, The Tragedy of Great Power Politics (New York: Norton, 2001), Chapter 2.
3. John J. Mearsheimer, Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 2011).
4. Edward Wong, 'Chinese Military Seeks to Extend its Naval Power', New York Times, April 23, 2010.
5. Marion W. Boggs, Attempts to Define and Limit "Aggressive" Armament in Diplomacy and Strategy (Columbia: University of Missouri, 1941); Keir A. Lieber, War and the Engineers: The Primacy of Politics over Technology (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008), pp. 12-13, 35-7.
6. Department of Defence, Australian Government, Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century, p. 34.
7. Robert D. Kaplan, 'The Geography of Chinese Power', Foreign Affairs, Vol. 89, No. 3 (2010), p. 34.
8. Edward Wong, 'Chinese Military'.
9. In April 2010, the Australian journalist, Kerry O'Brien asked President Obama, 'How hard is it going to be to for Americans to adjust in a mature way to the increasing prospect that you can't be number one forever?' Obama replied: 'I actually think that America can be number one for a very very long time but we think that there can be a whole host of countries that are prospering and doing well. Here's one way to think about it. The Chinese standard of living and industrial output per capita is about where the United States was back in 1910, I mean they've got a lot of catching up to do'. Transcript of 'Face to Face with Obama', The 7:30 Report, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, April 14, 2010.
10. The United States accounted for 43 percent of worldwide spending on defense in 2009, according to the SIPRI Yearbook 2010: Armaments, Disarmament and International Security, Summary (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2010), p. 11.
11. Toshi Yoshihara, 'Chinese Missile Strategy and the US Naval Presence in Japan: The Operational View from Beijing', Naval War College Review, Vol. 63, No. 3 (2010), pp. 39-62.
12. This phenomenon where the measures a state takes to increase its own security decrease the security of other states is commonly referred to as the 'security dilemma'. See Charles L. Glaser, 'The Security Dilemma Revisited', World Politics, Vol. 50, No. 1 (1997), pp. 171-201
13. John H. Herz, 'Idealist Internationalism and the Security Dilemma', World Politics, Vol. 2, No. 2 (1950), pp. 157-80
14. Robert Jervis, 'Cooperation under the Security Dilemma', World Politics, Vol. 30, No. 2 (1978), pp. 167-214.
15. Secretary of State Albright said on February 19, 1998 that, 'If we have to use force, it is because we are America. We are the indispensable nation. We stand tall. We see further than other countries into the future'.
16. 'Naked Aggression', Economist, March 14, 2009, p. 45.
17. Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics (Reading: Addison-Wesley, 1979), pp. 91, 107, 111.
18. John J. Mearsheimer, Tragedy of Great Power Politics, Chapter 2.
19. Edward Wong, 'Chinese Military'.
20. Chico Harlan, 'South Korea and US Send Message to North Korea with Drills in Sea of Japan', Washington Post, July 26, 2010
21. Peter Lee, 'South Korea Reels as US Backpedals', Asia Times online, July 24, 2010
22. Ben Richardson and Bill Austin, 'US-South Korea Drills to Avoid Yellow Sea amid China Concern', Bloomberg Businessweek, October 13, 2010
23. Michael Sainsbury, 'Don't Interfere with Us: China Warns US to Keep its Nose Out', The Australian, August 6, 2010.
24. David Brewster, 'The India-Japan Security Relationship: An Enduring Security Partnership', Asian Security, Vol. 6, No. 2 (2010), pp. 95-120.
25. Elisabeth Bumiller and Norimitsu Onishi, 'US Lifts Ban on Indonesian Special Forces Unit', New York Times, July 22, 2010
26. Also see Robert Dreyfuss, 'Containing China is A Fool's Errand. Yet Obama's Deal with Indonesian Thugs is Aimed at Exactly That', The Nation, July 23, 2010; John Pomfret, 'US Continues Effort to Counter China's Influence in Asia', Washington Post, July 23, 2010.
27. 'Singapore Changi Naval Base', http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/facility/singapore.htm, accessed on October 20, 2010.
28. Blaine Harden, 'Japanese Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama Resigns', Washington Post, June 2, 2007; 'Japan Agrees to Accept Okinawa Base', http://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2010/05/23/Japan-agrees-to-accept-Okinawa-base/UPI-72831274623169/, accessed on May 23, 2010.
29. For more evidence of Asian countries beginning to balance against China, see Andrew Jacobs, 'China Warns US to Stay Out of Islands Dispute', New York Times, July 26, 2010
30. Jay Solomon, Yuka Hayashi, and Jason Dean, 'As China Swaggers, Neighbors Embrace US', Wall Street Journal, May 25, 2010.
31. See Norman Angell, The Great Illusion: A Study of the Relation of Military Power in Nations to Their Economic and Social Advantage (New York: G. P. Putnam's, 1912); Thomas L. Friedman, The Lexus and the Olive Tree: Understanding Globalization (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1999); Richard Rosecrance, The Rise of the Trading State: Commerce and Conquest in the Modern World (New York: Basic Books, 1986).
32. Kenneth N. Waltz, Theory of International Politics, Chapter 7.
33. Department of Defence, Australian Government, Defending Australia in the Asia Pacific Century, p. 46.
34. According to the UN, China will have about 1.417 billion people in 2050, while the United States will have 0.404 billion, which would give China a 3.5:1 advantage. These numbers are taken from the 'population database' in UN Population Division, World Population Prospects: The 2008 Revision (New York, 2009).
35. H. P. Wilmott, The Barrier and the Javelin: Japanese and Allied Pacific Strategies, February to June 1942 (Annapolis: US Naval Institute Press, 1989), Chapter 2.
36. Andrew S. Erickson and Gabriel B. Collins, 'China's Oil Security Pipe Dream', Naval War College Review, Vol. 63, No. 2 (2010), pp. 89-111.
37. Toshi Yoshihara, 'Chinese Missile Strategy', p. 42.