Robert Pape on Opportunities for a “Special Relationship” Between China and the United States

The University of Chicago Center in Beijing
20th floor, Culture Plaza
No. 59A Zhong Guan Cun Street
Haidian District Beijing 100872

China’s rise sets up fundamental changes in the international system. These changes usher in a host of questions. For example, are the United States and China heading to a new Cold War? Will crises in Asia escalate to major power confrontation? Is China a fragile superpower? Robert Pape’s talk presented powerful structural reasons why the sources for conflict will not lead to a hot war and instead point in the direction of a fundamentally more cooperative relationship between the United States and China.

Robert A. Pape is Professor of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and specializes in international security affairs. His publications include the books Dying to Win: The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism (Random House, 2005), Bombing to Win: Air Power and Coercion in War (Cornell, 1996), Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Global Suicide Terrorism and How to Stop it (University of Chicago Press, September, 2010) as well as articles: “Why Economic Sanctions Do Not Work” (International Security, 1997), “The Determinants of International Moral Action” (International Organization, 1999), “The Strategic Logic of Suicide Terrorism” (American Political Science Review, August 2003) and “The True Worth of Air Power” (Foreign Affairs, March/April 2004).  He is director of the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism.

This event was co-sponsored by Beijing Foreign Studies University’s Info USA.