Yesterday’s Cold War Shows How to Beat China Today
Commentators of many stripes increasingly refer to the deteriorating relationshipbetween the United States and China as a new “cold war.” As some readers may recall, I think analogies to the earlier rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union should be viewed with some skepticism, as there are important differences between the two situations. But analytic caution doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try to draw useful lessons from the past and use them to inform policy decisions today. Why did the United States ultimately triumph over its Soviet rival? What advantages made victory more likely, and how did U.S. leaders exploit them? How might that earlier experience help Americans retain the upper hand over China in the decades ahead?
Here are five important lessons from the Cold War, lessons that should be guiding contemporary U.S. foreign policy. Spoiler alert: President Donald Trump has been ignoring or violating every one of them.
