Weight on the Scales
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By Ali Wyne
May 11, 2020
Weight on the Scales
U.S. Marine Corps photo by Cpl Scott Jenkins
Middle powers might seek to balance the U.S. and China, but inevitably their own actions change the equation.
Middle powers might seek to balance the U.S. and China,
but inevitably their own actions change the equation.
A few months back – only in January, yet seemingly a very different time – Mike Mazarr and I offered some initial reflections on America’s and China’s contrasting “theories of influenceâ€. The article prompted a series of contributions, including an initial rejoinder from Sam Roggeveen and most recently a response by Nurliana Kamaruddin and Jan Vincent Galas, which collectively furnish a rich basis for discussion.
The novel coronavirus has sufficiently affected the geopolitical landscape in the intervening weeks – particularly since Mazarr’s response in February and a further reply from Roggeveen in March – that I thought it would be appropriate to split my comments into two sections. The first contains some observations I wrote down before the World Health Organisation declared Covid-19 a pandemic, and another contains some observations I wrote afterward.
https://www.realcleardefense.com/articles/2020/05/11/weight_on_the_scales_115270.html
