International Law

CSIS Report on U.S.-China Relations Focuses on Dialogue and Multiple Contacts

By Stan

I’m 3-for-3 on U.S.-China relations posts today, including this one.

The report in question is entitled Smart Power in U.S.-China Relations and was substantially drafted by folks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. This is formally a commission report, co-chaired by former U.S. Secretary of Defense William Cohen and former AIG chief Hank Greenberg.

I approach this report disposed to be impressed. I spent a summer at CSIS (2005) while I was studying at Johns Hopkins SAIS. I have also worked a bit with people at The Cohen Group, Secretary Cohen’s consulting firm that is affiliated with DLA Piper. I also have a great deal of respect for Hank Greenberg, despite AIG’s current problems, particularly his China history.

OK, all that being said, here’s what the report is all about:

U.S.-China ties could have a greater impact on international affairs than any other relationship. Solving the world?s most serious issues?including global financial instability, proliferation and terrorism, climate change, and energy insecurity?is difficult to envision without joint action by Beijing and Washington. In today?s globalized world, transnational challenges require transnational solutions, especially by the most important states. U.S.-China partnership is indispensable for addressing many of the main challenges of the twenty-first century.

To foster a more cooperative relationship and reduce mutual tensions, Chinese and U.S. leaders must adopt a broader conception of their nation?s interests, one that includes advancing the global good as a joint means to realizing their country?s own national aims. China and the United States can almost always achieve their diverse economic, security, and other objectives more effectively through cooperative use of their smart-power resources?including diplomatic, economic, military, political, and cultural tools?rather than through unilateral action. The CSIS Commission on China examined smart-power opportunities for the U.S.-China relationship and in this report offers some recommendations. The proposals seek to help construct a new strategic framework for a cooperative U.S.-China relationship, anchored in the concept of smart power and employing clear, measurable, and enforceable goals.

At first glance, the recommendations of this commission do not seem all that impressive. International relations pragmatists often study problems with a particular bilateral relationship and determine that the best way forward is through mutual respect and an increase in formal and informal ties between the two nations.

This report is no different in that regard, but the one theme I like here is overcoming mistrust via communication. It’s not an exaggeration to point out that most elected government officials in the U.S. Congress have absolutely no idea why Beijing does what it does. (I use Congress as an example because I follow their China actions and rhetoric.) To the extent that smart multiple ties can help folks in both countries to understand each country’s motivation in formulating policy, I’m all for it.

In the interest of fairness, I should point out, however, that this idea of mutual understanding through communication is not a new idea. A good one, but definitely not new. If you want a good, in-depth read of this issue with respect to U.S.-China relations in the 1990s, check out David Lampton’s Same Bed, Different Dreams. When I was at SAIS, Lampton’s lectures on U.S.-China relations were not only pragmatic and politically neutral, but were very much in tune with the idea of mutual understanding as a fundamental underpinning of the policy process.

OK, that’s more than enough U.S.-China relations for this Friday — download and read the report if you want to know what kinds of strategic dialogues and cultural exchanges the commission recommends.

Enjoy your weekend.

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Full post as published by China Hearsay on March 20, 2009 (boomark / email).