A Dialogue Between Graham Allison, and Wang Huiyao On April 6, the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) hosted a virtual dialogue between Professor Graham T

Despite a confrontational summit in Alaska, the U.S. and China lack the military appetite for a new “Cold War.” The reality is both sides have more to lose from a direct confrontation then they could gain.

It’s no surprise that China wants to regain its place as the world’s number one superpower. If the U.S. seeks to remain top, it must move with the times.

A desire for all-around containment of China by the United States — pushed by hawkish political elements — is a major error that only boxes the two countries into the so-called Thucydides trap. Conflict will have no winners.

As Graham Allison of Harvard University has warned, “when a rising power like Athens, or China, threatens to displace a ruling power like Sparta, which had been the dominant power in Greece for a hundred years, or the US, basically alarm bells should sound.” Nowadays, the alarm bells are sounding so loud that they are drowning out ideas that would allow the United States and China to escape what Allison called the “Thucydides Trap.”

China’s rich trove of ancient wisdom expands the imagination about global governance. Its perspective deserves a place at the table. After asking what our current world is, we must not forget to ask ourselves what the future world could be.

As America’s China policy turns from engagement to competition, Beijing must face facts: Trump or no Trump, the US has reached bipartisan consensus on containing China. How should Beijing respond? Where will the current confrontation lead? In crafting a new strategy towards the US, China must consider the ultimate goal of its rise, and how America fits into the big picture.

China-US relations have deteriorated from “coopetition” into hostility. If China and the US can find a way back to a constructive path, they both stand to benefit from a “G2” world — and shortsighted attempts by America to maintain a “G1” world of US supremacy will only harm both countries’ global standing.

The competing rivals are vulnerable to extraneous actions unrelated to the rivalry, by some third party, unintended by either of the principal rivals, which nonetheless one or the other feels obliged to respond to, setting up a spiral that often ends in a conflict, even a catastrophic conflict.

Many factors make today’s world more stable.