A World In Disarray

This short chapter serves as a kind of transition to the following four. It sums up the author’s analysis in the first two parts of the book, noting that the trend today has been toward increasing disorder in the world. Haass ends optimistically, though, as he rejects fatalism, asserting that “what is done and how it is done will matter a great deal” (212). Part 3 is thus about detailing what the United States should do in the face of the present challenges.

The author’s first suggestion is to avoid great-power rivalries with China and Russia. If anything came of it militarily, it would be devastating. Beyond that, it would distract from making headway on important matters where cooperation could make a difference. The chapter title refers to the rivalry between Athens and Sparta as described by the Greek historian Thucydides almost two and a half millennia ago. It’s natural, he wrote, to fall into a “Thucydides Trap”—that is, for an established power (Sparta at the time) to view a rising power (Athens) with suspicion and try to prevent its rise. The United States, however, should resist this urge with regard to China.

While Haass does not see any ambition by China or Russia to take over the world, he does envision that their regional aggression might pose a problem.