It has become axiomatic to contend that U.S. foreign policy must adapt to an era of renewed great-power competition. The United States went on a quarter-century strategic detour after the Cold War, the argument goes, basking in triumphalism and getting bogged down in the Middle East. Now China and Russia are increasingly challenging its influence and undercutting the order it has led since 1945. How should it respond to these two formidable authoritarian powers?

In this timely intervention, Ali Wyne offers the first detailed critique of great-power competition as a foreign policy framework, warning that it could render the United States defensive and reactive. He exhorts Washington to find a middle ground between complacence and consternation, selectively contesting Beijing and Moscow but not allowing their decisions to determine its own course. Analyzing a resurgent China, a disruptive Russia, and a deepening Sino-Russian entente, Wyne explains how the United States can seize the "great-power opportunity" at hand: to manage all three of those phenomena confidently while renewing itself at home and abroad.

Ali Wyne is a senior analyst at Eurasia Group. He is a term member of the Council on Foreign Relations, a David Rockefeller fellow with the Trilateral Commission, and a security fellow with the Truman National Security Project. His writings have appeared in theNew York Times,Washington Post,Wall Street Journal,Financial Times,Washington Quarterly, andNational Interest, among other outlets.

Acknowledgments

Preface

Chapter 1: Searching for a Post-Cold War Ballast

Chapter 2: Drawing Historical Analogies

Chapter 3: Probing Great-Power Competition

Chapter 4: Managing a Resurgent China

Chapter 5: Assessing Russias Conduct and the Sino-Russian Entente

Chapter 6: Seizing Americas Great-Power Opportunity

Afterword

Notes

Index