China's Grand Strategy

3 Credits · Level: Graduate

This course will examine China’s grand strategy and emerging patterns of U.S.-China interaction. First, the course will introduce students to the study of China’s grand strategy after the Cold War. Students will gain familiarity with debates on what grand strategy is, how to study it, and whether China has one. They will learn about key foreign policy institutions in China and how to use social science methods to explain variation in China’s foreign policy behavior. Second, this course will focus on U.S.-China strategic competition, how to manage it, and possible areas of coordination and cooperation. Students will explore U.S.-China competitive interaction across military affairs, trade, finance, technology, standard setting, telecommunications, international institutions, and global governance, among other domains. They will also explore the potential for and limitations of crisis communications, risk reduction measures, and cooperation on transnational challenges from climate to AI governance. In addition to reviewing social science literature on these topics, students will also discuss and debate historical analogs for these patterns of U.S.-China interaction, such as the Anglo-German telecommunications rivalry, U.S.-Soviet cooperation on transnational challenges, and Cold War-era export control regimes.