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i& #39;m writing my final paper on using applied history to understand US-China relations and where to go from here. I have a big section on why the Cold War analogy is only useful in deconstructing why the Cold War analogy isn& #39;t correct. 
https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="😅" title="Smiling face with open mouth and cold sweat" aria-label="Emoji: Smiling face with open mouth and cold sweat"> https://twitter.com/nils_gilman/status/1262754070244147205">https://twitter.com/nils_gilm...
I argue that when using history to understand US-China relations, and the current administration& #39;s aggressive stance - it makes more sense to use an issue history and vector approach...
looking at China& #39;s and America& #39;s developments since 1979, separately and their cooperation, as well as addressing the vectors of neo-globalisation, the 2008 financial crisis, and anti-American suspicion and anti-Chinese nationalism in the US — better helps us understand...
the breakdown of relations as part of a longer process, dispels the "inevitability" of conflict, and provides options for future policy.
there have been a plethora of articles on "Is America entering a New Cold War?" for ages now, and reading all of them make it easier to look at the current Sino-American relationship as 1) a long time coming 2) not "doomed" and 3) not a "Cold War"
the overarching accepted argument about the Cold War is that it was at its core an ideological conflict, where the Soviet Union& #39;s vision of a global system and economy was not based on capitalism but communism...
since China is basically a planned market system today, and is inextricably integrated into the global economy - the ideological conflict comparison doesn& #39;t hold imo.
that is not to say there aren& #39;t ideological differences between the two countries (purportedly on human rights and democratic politics, but we know the US isn& #39;t "perfect" on that)...
but as the history of Sino-American cooperation reveals, America has been more than willing to overlook these differences — something they were very unwilling to do in the Soviet case...
what this tells us, imho, is that despite the trade war and heightened tensions today, we are not at a point of no return, and claiming that this is a "New Cold War" will only engender the China hawks.
also, Kori Schake& #39;s book on US-Anglo relations and the "transfer of power" is a more useful analogy, and again it& #39;s not 1:1, you gotta look at the differences — to understand a version of the path the US might be on...
this doesn& #39;t mean a Chinese uni-polar moment is inevitable, but it does suggest the United States cannot expect the same from China that it did from Britain or the Soviet Union.
