Event

How can China and USA compete without making war?

The world is rife with conflict and China and USA are engaged in intensified competition and rivalry. What will it take to steer the two superpowers from ending in armed conflict?

26 February 2024

10:00 Europe/Oslo

Language: English

NUPI

Seminar

Themes

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In this seminar, we zoom in on the East and Southeast Asia regions, where China and USA compete for influence and where territorial disputes make war a possible scenario. Regional powers, with more and less good or tense relations to China, and some of them with formal alliance ties to USA, encircle areas and oceans with valuable resources and the world’s busiest shipping routes. The Taiwan question remains a center piece of geopolitical tension in the region.

Professor Kai He (Griffith University, Australia) will in this seminar give a talk about his work on the prospects for what he calls institutional peace. He argues that competition or rivalry may not end in war, but provide conditions for “constructive competition”, keeping China and USA put in peaceful coexistence. However, the question of which types of economic, political, and military conditions this will depend on remains critically important.

In addition to regional issues we will address, considering China-USA relations, the possible implications of the war in Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, and other international conflicts.

After Kai He's presentation, there will be a panel discussion. Here you will find Stein Tønnesson, Research Professor Emeritus and former Director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO). There will be opportunity to ask questions to the panelists.

The seminar is moderated by Senior Research Fellow at NUPI, Hans Jørgen Gåsemyr.

This seminar is co-organized with the Fudan-European Center for China Studies, which is coordinating Kai He’s visit to Norway. Kai He is Professor of International Relations at Griffith University, Australia. The event is also organized with connection to Center for geopolitics, led by NUPI.

The seminar will take place at NUPI from 10:00 to 11:30.

This event will not be streamed.