Great Power Competition is too Narrow a Frame

The doctrine of great power competition gets one major thing right: China is the biggest threat facing the United States. However, it gets the prescription all wrong. The United States cannot hope to prevail by casting itself as a lone combatant with the help of some small but ultimately irrelevant allies. Instead, it must realize that the true nature of global competition is between two systems—liberal democracy and authoritarianism—and rally its fellow democracies to its side. A conception of global competition that emphasizes states rather than systems inevitably results in the practice of a flawed foreign policy. Read More…