The Lawfare Podcast: Hal Brands and Michael Beckley on the Emerging Conflict with China

Jen Patja, Matt Gluck, Hal Brands, Michael Beckley
Friday, August 19, 2022, 12:00 PM

Published by The Lawfare Institute
in Cooperation With
Brookings

What is the nature and timescale of U.S. geopolitical competition with China? Which country is stronger in the near term and long term? And what will the answers to these questions mean for Chinese military and political activities over the next 10 years?

Matt Gluck sat down with Hal Brands, the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and Michael Beckley, an associate professor of political science at Tufts University, to discuss their new book, “Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China.” They discussed the authors’ argument that China is structurally far weaker than people think, but that this weakness makes China more likely to act aggressively over the next several years. They also discussed the implications of this argument for U.S. policy and to what extent international initiatives that are already underway are responsive to this near-term threat.


Jen Patja is the editor and producer of the Lawfare Podcast and Rational Security. She currently serves as the Co-Executive Director of Virginia Civics, a nonprofit organization that empowers the next generation of leaders in Virginia by promoting constitutional literacy, critical thinking, and civic engagement. She is the former Deputy Director of the Robert H. Smith Center for the Constitution at James Madison's Montpelier and has been a freelance editor for over 20 years.
Matt Gluck is a research fellow at Lawfare. He holds a BA in government from Dartmouth College.
Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies.
Michael Beckley is an associate professor of political science at Tufts University, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, and director of the Asia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is the author of “Unrivaled: Why America Will Remain the World’s Sole Superpower” (Cornell University Press, 2018) and co-author of “Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China” (Norton, 2022).

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