US national security strategy reflects flaw in Western thinking: an antagonistic world view
Tian Feilong says America sees China and the rest of the world through a ‘friend or foe’ mentality that squanders opportunities for cooperation. Its wish to remake the world in its own image only promotes feelings of insecurity
The problem is that the US does not believe China’s claim of a peaceful rise. After all, the Chinese have a proverb that says “a mountain cannot contain two tigers”. And Western philosophy is built on a history of dualistic contests, so the West views Chinese strategic intent through the lens of its own experience.
This doctrine recalls Hans Morgenthau’s theory of realism in international relations. The core logic of that influential theory is that a nation’s interests are maximised and protected by power. Such a perspective contrasts with the lofty aspirations that underline moral universalism.
But why “principled”? This is because the US needs to shore up its soft power and moral leadership, and turn US values into universal values.
In the document, the US lists three forces that threaten American interests: the revisionist powers of China and Russia; the authoritarian regimes in Iran and North Korea; and, the terrorist movement led by Islamist jihadists. These forces have little to do with one another. The only reason the US is lumping them together is they are all perceived threats to its global leadership.
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Such a world view is somewhat outdated. Revisionism was a term widely used in ideological battles within the international communist movement. The US is now borrowing the concept to accuse China and Russia of exercising their “sharp power” to disrupt the world order it leads, with its values of freedom and democracy, thus undermining its leadership and national interests.
Coined in a report by a US Congress-funded organisation, “sharp power” describes the information warfare waged by China and Russia. The US itself has a long history of using “sharp power” and is more skilful at doing so. However, when China and Russia use it, the US apparently sees it as infringing on a US privilege. Such thinking reflects America’s “friend or foe” mentality and its unease at the state of affairs.
The US has adopted different strategies to deal with the three forces. It seeks to contain and restrict imminent superpowers like China and Russia in “all-out war”; to deal with North Korea, Iran and other mid-sized threats using “subversive warfare”; and to engage the terrorist groups in a “battle of annihilation”.
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Among these threats, what the US fears most is China, not the terrorist movement or the nuclear weapons of North Korea and Iran. It is worried that the Chinese model may spread and one day replace the US model favouring competition.
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Perhaps this can be attributed to a fundamental flaw in Western culture: an antagonistic world view. It has been the driving force behind the West’s cultural development and social progress, but it does not encourage inclusiveness or integration with other countries. The flip side of this antagonistic perspective is a strong sense of self-centredness, which in the West has become the basis of its “universal” values.
Such a world view can easily lead to a thirst for “conquests”, that is, a wish in the West to “improve” non-Western civilisations by turning them into its own image. This implies a never-ending cultural war. Francis Fukuyama’s theory of “the end of history”, which privileges Western liberalism and democratic order, is precisely based on such a world view. This is disconcerting to the rest of the world.
Faced with a militarily weaker China during the cold-war years, the US has relied on a “first island chain” strategy, in which a series of islands lying between China and the Pacific Ocean are used by the US as a natural barrier to contain China. Since then, however, China has upgraded its military and showed its determination to defend its sovereignty.
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The US has responded with the doctrine of principled realism. China will need more land-sea knowledge and strategies to find breakthroughs that further its development. It will need a doctrine of “rational idealism” to achieve strategic expansion and fulfil its dream of global governance.
Tian Feilong is an associate professor at Beihang University’s Law School in Beijing and a researcher at the think tank of the Central Institute of Socialism. This is translated from Chinese