MACMILLAN The US-China Military and Defense Relationship during the Obama Presidency (New Security Challenges)

This book offers a timely and compelling explanation for the deterioration of U.S.-China security relations during the Obama Presidency. The U.S.-China relationship has become one of (if not the most) vital features of contemporary world politics, and with arrival the Donald Trump to the White House in 2017, this vital geopolitical relationship sits at a precarious and dangerous crossroads. This book assesses a wide array of sources to systematically unpack the policy rhythms, drivers, and dynamics that defined the course of Sino-American security relations during the Obama-era. It fills several gaps in the literature on international security and conflict and offers a nuanced and innovative comparative approach to examine individual military domains. The case study chapters draw on recent Chinese and English sources - on military doctrine, capabilities, and defense strategy - to build a clear understanding the main sources of U.S.-China misperceptions, and highlight the problems these assessments can create for the conduct of statecraft across strategically competitive geopolitical dyads. The book builds a sobering picture of U.S.-China relations that will appeal to specialists and generalists alike with an interest in future warfare, emerging military-technologies, military studies, arms control, and foreign policy issues in the Asia-Pacific region more broadly. Review “James Johnson’s timely book draws attention to the increasing danger of military conflict between China and the United States. Johnson draws on an impressive array of Chinese and Western sources to provide a well-documented account of the current military-security situation and to highlight warning signs about where it is likely headed in the coming decades.” (Avery Goldstein, David M. Knott Professor of Global Politics and International Relations, University of Pennsylvania, USA) “Clear and consistent in its argument and analysis and it offers excellent insight into the US–China ‘Security’ relationship under Obama, with also some flavour of how this relationship will play out under Trump in the Conclusion.” (George Christou, Professor of European Politics and Security, University of Warwick, UK) “This path-breaking analysis of US perceptions and misperceptions of China’s new capabilities shape their mutual security dilemma provides important new insights into processes of strategic assessment and policy-making in Washington. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the US–China security relationship in the contemporary world.” (Ian Hall, Professor of International Relations, School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University, Australia) “The book offers an important new angle to explain the deterioration of Sino–US security relationship during the Obama administration. Instead emphasizing the typical structural dynamics favored by the power transition theory, which is exemplified by the Thucydides Trap narrative, this book points out the centrality of perceptions in the making of great power relations. The book thus represents a major contribution to the study of security dilemma, which is a central phenomenon of great power relations.” (Zhang Baohui, Director, Centre for Asian Pacific Studies, Lingnan University, Hong Kong) “This book rightly re-establishes the central role of misperceptions in International Relations and strategic studies in general. But much more than that, James Johnson’s masterful study of recent US–Sino relations gives us an empirically rich and theoretically informed understanding of the specific ways in which security dilemma dynamics can shape a bilateral relationship. This is first-rate analysis and therefore will be essential reading for scholars and policymakers alike.” (Benjamin Zala, Australian National University, Australia) From the Back Cover This book offers a timely and compelling explanation for the deterioration of U.S.-China security relatio