Destined For War

China and the United States are heading toward a war neither wants. The reason is Thucydides’s Trap, a pattern of structural stress that occurs when an unstoppable China approaches an immovable America and both Xi Jinping and Donald Trump promise to make their countries “great again. ” Unless China is willing to scale back its ambitions or Washington can accept becoming number two in the Pacific, a trade conflict, cyberattack, or accident at sea could soon escalate into an all-out war.