Classical Realism and the Rise of Sino-American Antagonism: A Review Essay

Has the United States been trying to contain China? If so, why now? Still, proponents of Chinese containment have been critical of the United States' continued fixation with Russia - a declining state - arguing that this diversion undermines a focused Chinacentric strategy. This is not the first time that U.S. strategic attention has been diverted from China. Back in 2001, U.S. Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, embarked on an ambitious endeavor to revise U.S. grand strategy and focus on China which was perceived as the sole state capable of becoming a peer rival to the United States. However, following the tragic events of 11 September 2001, the Bush administration redirected its focus away from great power antagonism with China towards the Global War on Terror. Could any political scientist, speculating upon the direction of American grand strategy in the summer of 2001, by any accounts have foreseen that the United States would waste significant strategic capital in pursuing terrorists in Afghanistan and promoting democracy in the Middle East over the next decade? Nowadays, could any political theorist in December 2021 have foreseen that the United States would drive Russia into the open arms of China and create Mackinder's Eurasian nightmare? Classical realism may have the best answers. Jonathan Kirshner's latest treatise explains why past is more than prologue and how classical realism is superior to other “realisms” in providing the most authoritative insights about the complex strategic behavior of states.