Lecture Abstract:

The United States and China are ostensibly engaged in a multifaceted contest over a wide range of issues and involving a good number of Asia-Pacific nations. What is at stake for the two big nations and the Asia-Pacific region? What is the nature of the U.S.-China relationship? How do we understand the moves and countermoves the United States and China have toward each other? What are the strategies and tactics each employs in this contest? Where do the Asia-Pacific nations stand in this great-power contest? David Lai will address these issues in his presentation and use the Chinese-invented board game of weiqi to put these complicated issues in perspective.

About the Speaker:

David Lai joined the Strategic Studies Institute (SSI) of the U.S. Army War College in July of 2008. Before assuming this position, Dr. Lai was on the faculty of the U.S. Air War College, Maxwell AFB, Montgomery, Alabama. Born and grew up in China, Lai witnessed China’s “Cultural Revolution,” its economic reform, and the changes in China’s foreign relations, the most important of all, U.S.-China relations. He earned his bachelor’s degree in China and his Master’s degree and Ph.D. in political science from the University of Colorado. His teaching and research interests cover international relations theory, war and peace studies, comparative foreign and security policy, U.S.-China and U.S.-Asian relations, Chinese strategic thinking and operational art. Dr Lai has been to most of the East and Southeast Asian nations and many times to South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. In recent years, Dr. Lai has also visited India and many European nations. Some of his recent publications include Chinese Way of War: From Theory to Operation, co-edited with Roy Kamphausen, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute (forthcoming); “The Impasse of U.S.-China Relations,” The Diplomat, 16 October 2015; The PLA in 2025, co-edited with Roy Kamphausen, Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, October, 2015; “Japan Unleashed: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly,” co-authored with Noah Lingwall, The National Interest, June 2015; and “China’s Strategic Moves and Countermoves in the Asia Pacific,” Parameters, winter, 2014/15.