The New Great Game for Leadership in Asia

US President Joe Biden meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping at the G20 in Bali, November 2022. Photo credit: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque

The strategic complexion of Asia has shifted substantially in recent years. The United States is no longer the predominant military, diplomatic, and economic power across the region, as it was for the last half of the 20th century and the first decade of this century. China actively contests American leadership as it strives to restore […]

The Quad Is for Real, Thanks to Abe

Quad Ministers panel at the Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi, India, March 3, 2023. Photo credit: via REUTERS

“Japan is not now and will never be a tier-two power,” declared Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in a speech to the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington in February 2013. He was there to champion the idea of a Quadrilateral Security Dialogue between Japan, the United States, India, and Australia. He succeeded in […]

A Chinese View of US–China Relations

US President Joe Biden meets with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 leaders' summit in Bali, Indonesia, November 14, 2022. Photo credit: REUTERS

[Note from the Editors: We have added parenthetical comments to the article for context in several places.] The United States frames its relations with China as a great power competition, in terms of the Biden administration’s national security strategy, for example. China claims to have a different view, having just emerged from three years of […]

Biden’s Measured Response to China’s Activism in the Middle East

Chinese President Xi Jinping meets with Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on December 8, 2022. Photo credit: REUTERS

The Biden administration does not view US–China competition in the Middle East as a zero-sum prize for one side to enjoy at the other’s expense. This measured response to China’s growing influence could change, however; outlined below are factors that could shift US policy toward great power confrontation in the region. China’s President Xi Jinping […]