There is a lot of talk lately about the growing likelihood of a war between China and the United States. A recent op-ed in the Washington Post spoke darkly of the two countries heading toward a “dangerous showdown” in Asia. Professor Hugh White at the Australian National University has even written an article with the title, “It’s Time We Talked about War with China.”

Of course, such talk is nothing new. Back in the 1990s, Richard Bernstein and Ross Munro co-wrote a best-selling book, The Coming Conflict with China. In it, the authors warned that China and the United States were on an almost unavoidable glide-path toward war, given Beijing’s obsession with overturning the American-based hegemony in the Asia-Pacific.

… Richard A. Bitzinger is a Senior Fellow and Coordinator of the Military Transformations Programme at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. The opinions expressed here are his own.