Shifrinson Publishes Journal Article on “Neo-Primacy”
On December 11, 2020, Joshua Shifrinson, Assistant Professor of International Relations at the Frederick S. Pardee School of Global Studies at Boston University, published an article in The Washington Quarterly on the United States’ increasingly combative strategy towards China.
In the article, titled “Neo-Primacy and the Pitfalls of US Strategy toward China,” Shifrinson discusses the competitive U.S. approach to an increasingly influential China, the concept of neo-primacy, and how U.S. adoption of this strategy could create significant risks for national security.
An excerpt:
This article fills the gap by examining the logic of neo-primacy and its prospective costs and benefits to the United States. Despite its widespread appeal, I argue that neo-primacy carries significant risks for US national security. Neo-primacy is a highly aggressive strategy that, paradoxically, risks transforming the United States into a major challenger to the status quo if not a revisionist power in its own right—it makes the United States itself a threat to international security in ways that could both increase the likelihood of conflict with Beijing and deprive the United States of other states’ assistance
The full journal article can be read on The Washington Quarterly website.
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. His work has appeared with International Security, the Journal of Strategic Studies, Foreign Affairs, and other venues. Read more about him here.