Author: Raoul Heinrichs, ANU

In 500 years or so, when the next Paul Kennedy sets out to trace the rise and fall of great powers since the end of the Cold War, a good part of the opening chapter might well be devoted to the contradictions of US primacy. There’ll be plenty to choose from.

But perhaps the most vexing, and certainly the most consequential, is the way that US primacy — an order built on the indomitable power of the US and designed to entrench American dominance — facilitated the rise of a powerful and dissatisfied China, a peer competitor whose growing power would threaten the foundations of US primacy itself.  Read more…