Will US or China win the next war? That’s the wrong question to ask

Andrew Sheng is a former central banker and financial regulator, currently distinguished fellow at the Asia Global Institute, University of Hong Kong.Who will win the next war? That is the question posed on the cover of the latest Foreign Affairs magazine which explores, among other things, the China-military-and-technological-rivalry" class="entity-link entity-topic" data-entity-id="175901" data-entity-type="topic">US-China military and technological rivalry. At its core is a clash of strategic philosophies between the US-led order and China’s world view, which has propelled the latter’s rise to the world’s second great power.The magazine’s contributors reflect a deeply ingrained Western strategic tradition, rooted in liberal realism, that says that the United States must maintain its primacy to underwrite global stability, defend democracy and retain its financial, technological and military power. Any challenger is inherently revisionist.Lead essayist Paul Scharre argues that new technologies in drones, artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics challenge not only America’s traditional air and naval power but also allow states such as Iran to conduct asymmetric warfare, which erodes US hard and soft power.