In an interview with Katie Stallard of *The New Statesman,* former deputy national security advisor Matthew Pottinger makes the case for achieving “unmistakable strength in the form of military hard power” that will ensure that China is “not tempted to resort to force” to resolve the status of Taiwan. As he argues, “If we are going to prevent a catastrophe, then we need to recognize that the middle path between outright hot war on the one hand, and abject capitulation on the other, is something cold-war-like,” he said. “That is a competition between hostile adversaries, but where we try to avoid either of those terrible extremes, and even if you recognize that there are significant differences between China and the Soviet Union, we learn the lessons of the Cold War in order to help things stay cold.”
Do you think the west is broadly in agreement that the US (and its allies) and China (and its allies) are in a new Cold War?
And to what extent do you agree or disagree with Pottinger’s overall assessment that we are in the foothills of actual great power kinetic conflict?
OG-demosthenes on
Pottinger’s thoughts on this are actually pretty lucid. He’s also a proponent of Vandenberg’s “Politics stops at the water’s edge” philosophy, which imo gives him more credibility. I don’t completely buy into his sense of urgency (yet) but his thoughts are well worth contemplating.
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In an interview with Katie Stallard of *The New Statesman,* former deputy national security advisor Matthew Pottinger makes the case for achieving “unmistakable strength in the form of military hard power” that will ensure that China is “not tempted to resort to force” to resolve the status of Taiwan. As he argues, “If we are going to prevent a catastrophe, then we need to recognize that the middle path between outright hot war on the one hand, and abject capitulation on the other, is something cold-war-like,” he said. “That is a competition between hostile adversaries, but where we try to avoid either of those terrible extremes, and even if you recognize that there are significant differences between China and the Soviet Union, we learn the lessons of the Cold War in order to help things stay cold.”
Do you think the west is broadly in agreement that the US (and its allies) and China (and its allies) are in a new Cold War?
And to what extent do you agree or disagree with Pottinger’s overall assessment that we are in the foothills of actual great power kinetic conflict?
Pottinger’s thoughts on this are actually pretty lucid. He’s also a proponent of Vandenberg’s “Politics stops at the water’s edge” philosophy, which imo gives him more credibility. I don’t completely buy into his sense of urgency (yet) but his thoughts are well worth contemplating.