Can America and China avoid Thucydides's Trap?

Stockholm

CHINA'S rise and the relative decline of the United States have produced a plethora of books. Among the most prominent is Graham Allison's Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap? While far from flawless, the book has undoubtedly succeeded in sharpening our focus.

Thucydides was a general and historian in ancient Greece, and his History of the Peloponnesian War is regarded as the first major historical work. He maintains that the 27-year war, from 431 to 403 BC, was a consequence of the anxiety that Athens's rise caused in Sparta, an ascending power cha…