Publications

china’s strategic nuclear arms control: avoiding the “thucydides trap”. the “thucydides trap” refers to the propensity in history for rising states to challenge putative hegemons or other leading powers for international position, sometimes resulting in war. china’s growing military and economic power in the twenty-first century challenges american and russian leadership on international security issues, including nuclear arms control and nonproliferation. yet strategic nuclear arms reductions have still proceeded in a two-sided framework of us-russian negotiations. despite obvious difficulties, china should be brought into the process of us-russian nuclear arms reductions because china is rising as a nuclear power and moving beyond its cold war minimum deterrence posture.