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Foreign Affairs says US-China rivalry is reshaping global stability
The magazine argues emerging technologies like drones, AI, and robotics are eroding US power and enabling asymmetric warfare.
Foreign Affairs has framed the US-China contest as a struggle between competing strategic philosophies, with the magazine’s contributors arguing that the US-led order is meant to preserve stability while China’s rise reflects a different world view.
In the lead essay, Paul Scharre says advances in drones, artificial intelligence, and robotics are challenging the United States’ traditional air and naval strengths, and that such tools can also strengthen asymmetric capabilities for states such as Iran, weakening US hard and soft power.
Former US Pacific commander Admiral Dennis Blair argues China’s military build-up is intended to overturn the status quo in East Asia rather than being purely defensive, and he advocates deterrence through US alliances, forward deployments, and continued technological leadership.
Other contributors, Michael Beckley and Hal Brands, describe the contest using classic “heartland” and “rimland” frameworks, concluding that an “autocratic axis” is linked more by shared resentment of US dominance than by ideology, while the democratic coalition is split by differing interests in how to engage Beijing, according to SCMP Economy.