Destined for War

Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?

| 4.37 | 3,047 ratings and reviews

Recommended by Fareed Zakaria, Kin Kariisa, Will MacAskill, and 3 others. See all reviews

Ranked #3 in Korean History, Ranked #13 in China History — see more rankings.

CHINA AND THE UNITED STATES ARE HEADING TOWARD A WAR NEITHER WANTS. The reason is Thucydides’s Trap, a deadly pattern of structural stress that results when a rising power challenges a ruling one. This phenomenon is as old as history itself. About the Peloponnesian War that devastated ancient Greece, the historian Thucydides explained: “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.” Over the past 500 years, these conditions have occurred sixteen times. War broke out in twelve of them. Today, as an unstoppable China approaches an... more
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Reviews and Recommendations

We've comprehensively compiled reviews of Destined for War from the world's leading experts.

Fareed Zakaria A very smart and important book. (Source)

Kin Kariisa It was such a memorable and humbling moment meeting Prof. Allison Graham, professor of government at Harvard, on the sidelines of Jeju Forum for Peace and Prosperity here in Jeju Island, South Korea. His book Destined for War is a fascinating read. https://t.co/ZB3HhBHgLY (Source)

Will MacAskill The last 70 years are a fairly unusual state. We don’t really know why they’ve been so unusually peaceful. This could all change in the 21st century. (Source)

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