Managing Sino-American Crises: Case Studies and Analysis

Sensitivities and suspicions between Washington and Beijing have heightened as China's global power and influence have grown. Arguably, this new international order could increase the chances of a political-military crisis-or perhaps outright conflict-between the two powers. Managing Sino-American Crises brings together Chinese and American officials and participants in past confrontations, as well as scholars from both countries, to explore the changing features of crisis behavior and their implications for defusing future encounters. Using both conceptual analysis and historical case studies, the essays in this volume identify specific problems and opportunities that will likely confront both countries in the future and propose recommendations that will improve the effectiveness of crisis management skills between the United States and China.

Michael D. Swaine is a senior associate in the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's China Program. He has produced several seminal studies, which have expanded American and Chinese governmental officials' understanding of the Chinese military and its role in national security decision making, and Taiwan's national security decision-making process. Dr. Swaine spearheaded and currently co-directs a multi-year collaborative project on key aspects of Sino-American crisis management with a Beijing-based think tank. Dr. Swaine was named the first holder of the RAND Center for Asia Pacific Policy Chair, and also served as research director for the center. His most recent book is Managing Sino-American Crises: Case Studies and Analysis (Carnegie Endowment, 2006). He received a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University. Zhang Tuosheng is director of the research department and senior fellow at the China Foundation for International and Strategic Studies. Danielle F. S. Cohen was a junior fellow with the China Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace from 2005-2006. She is the author of Retracing the Triangle: China's Strategic Perceptions of Japan in the Post Cold-War Era (Maryland Series in Contemporary Asian Studies, 2005).