Special Lecture on the US Grand Strategy and its implications for Sino-American Relations by Professor Harsh V Pant, Kings College, London 2018

The Department of International Studies and History hosted Dr Harsh V Pant, Professor of International Relations in the Defence Studies Department and the India Institute at King’s College London on 2 June 2018. A noted scholar of International Relations and a widely published author, Professor Pant proficiently offered his expertise to the students and turned the sessions into erudite discussions.

At an informal interaction with students of M.A. International Studies, Prof. Pant flagged emerging trends in International Relations. He also outlined career prospects in IR and availability of various options in higher education abroad.
Later, Prof Pant addressed a larger audience on ‘The US Grand Strategy and its Implications for Sino-American Relations’.   A broad and realistic outlook of the topic was presented by scanning the history of the bilateral relations and the multidimensional complexions of the geopolitics involved in the same. The US Grand Strategy during the Cold War involved opening up the Chinese markets and bringing China to the centre of global politics. The US feared that the combined force of two communist states – USSR and China – would result in their domination over the world order. This strategy was a spectacular success for both the US and China since it resulted in the disintegration of the Soviet Union in the 1990s ending the cold war and enormous economic growth for China. However, the economic growth of China and its subsequent rise in the global order made it another challenger to US dominance in the world order.

The Clinton administration decided that the solution would be to further integrate China into the liberal institutional architecture. Liberal institutionalism had won over realism. The realist school of thought believed that the integration would not matter and China’s economic growth and its resulting military might would pose a challenge to the US. Realism proved to be right in the end and as a consequence, the Bush administration decided to take a more realistic approach in dealing with China. However, the bombing of the Twin towers on September 11th, 2001 resulted in its focus shifting to tackling terrorism. The second term of Bush saw the US engaging regional powers in Asia to counterbalance China.  When President Barack Obama came to power in 2008, the US had envisioned a set up where China would manage the Asia Pacific and the US would manage rest of the world. This was partly due to the decline in the power of the US, the financial crisis and the steady rise in China’s power. However, the aggressiveness of China with the ASEAN states made the Obama administration adopt its ‘Pivot to Asia’ policy. Professor suggested that the US strategists under the Trump administration need to rethink US’ earlier choice of integrating China into the world order in the 1970s taking into consideration that even the regional powers in Asia are heavily dependent on China due to their economic relations.

From plausible efforts to counter China to how India and the United States must approach the Chinese Dream, the Professor was then met with questions that covered an impressively broad spectrum.