● A World Safe for Commerce: American Foreign Policy from the Revolution to the Rise of China
Dale C. Copeland
Review via The Wall Street Journal
There is therefore a historical irony that comes in Mr. Copeland’s important final chapter, for the story here, as he puts it, is of “the great geopolitical struggle” of the 21st century “between a seemingly declining United States wanting to maintain a semblance of preeminence and a rising China seeking to establish itself as a dominant, if not the dominant, state in its region and perhaps the world.” Here, for the first time in more than a century, there exists another nation with a GDP almost as large as America’s, a nation that sells far more to the U.S. than it purchases, a nation that seems impervious to American pressure. All this suggests to Mr. Copeland that there is a trade war in which America seems to be losing, not winning. “A World Safe for Commerce” thus ends with the author’s recommendations for robust policies to preserve America’s world order, which may be another reason for paying attention to this work.