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Foreign Affairs debate centers on US-China rivalry and AI-era warfare
The magazine argues emerging drone, AI, and robotics technologies could weaken US power by enabling more asymmetric warfare.
A commentary in the South China Morning Post highlights how the latest Foreign Affairs issue frames the US-China rivalry as a competition between strategic philosophies, centered on whether the US-led order can maintain its primacy while China rises as the world’s second great power.
The magazine’s contributors say the US must preserve its financial, technological, and military strength to underwrite global stability and defend democracy, while portraying challengers as revisionists. It also argues that new technologies in drones, artificial intelligence, and robotics are changing the battlefield for both traditional air and naval power and for states using asymmetric tactics, with Iran cited as an example.
Former US Pacific commander Admiral Dennis Blair is presented as arguing China’s military build-up is aimed at overturning East Asia’s status quo rather than being defensive. The piece says he calls for deterrence backed by US alliances, forward deployments, and technological leadership to support regional stability.
Academics Michael Beckley and Hal Brands are also described applying older Anglo-American “heartland” and “rimland” frameworks to characterize the contest as an enduring struggle between maritime incumbents and land-based revisionists. The article adds that it links the “autocratic axis” more to shared resentment of US dominance than ideology, while describing divisions among democratic partners over how to engage Beijing.