Shifrinson Writes on US-Chinese Policy for Responsible Statecraft
Joshua Shifrinson, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, co-authored a short essay with Benjamin H. Friedman, Policy Director at Defense Priorities, for the Quincy Institute’s blog, Responsible Statecraft (May 4, 2020) on “The coronavirus crisis is a poor excuse for a new cold war.”
Friedman and Shifrinson argue that “The coronavirus’s rampage across the United States has supercharged China bashing in U.S. political circles” but “the cost of recovery requires focusing on restoring internal health, and avoiding a militarized foreign policy aimed at shoring up U.S. preeminence.”
An excerpt:
Fear surrounding China’s rise existed well before coronavirus. The pandemic, however, has supercharged the excess. Two camps are emerging. On the right, hawks such as Senators Tom Cotton and Joshua Hawley rumble about making China “pay” for its role in the pandemic and decoupling the two economies. Donald Trump’s reelection campaign is already heavily into China bashing. Those on the left worry that China is winning the war on coronavirus by recovering faster, aiding hard-hit countries, and propagandizing their success in a new battle between democracies and autocracies; China, in short, is helping the bad guys win the war for international leadership.
Read the full piece here.
Joshua R. Itzkowitz Shifrinson is an Assistant Professor at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, where his teaching and research interests focus on the intersection of international security and diplomatic history, particularly the rise and fall of great powers and the origins of grand strategy. He is author of Rising Titans, Falling Giants: How Great Powers Exploit Power Shifts (Cornell University Press, 2018) and his work has appeared with International Security, the Journal of Strategic Studies, Foreign Affairs, and other venues. Read more here.