By Erik Gartzke
The news that China is tipping into deflation poses many challenges. But it could contain at least one unappreciated benefit for the world. The travails besetting China’s economy may well derail what a growing number of observers see as an “inevitable” path to a U.S.-China war.
Scholars and pundits have highlighted a potentially catastrophic dynamic known variously as a “power transition,” “commitment problem” or more recently as “the Thucydides Trap.” This theory predicts war between countries as they transition in relative power. The prospect of China and the United States, the two largest economies in the world, facing off against each other—with their respective nuclear arsenals—is more than a bit disconcerting. Fortunately, the danger of war, at least in the form attributed to Thucydides, may just have passed.
This piece was originally published in Real Clear World on August 24, 2023. Read more HERE.