"Report No. 217: US-China Reassurance: Theory and Practice" - by CWP alum Kai He
The world is currently facing a polycrisis, characterized by overlapping and interconnected global challenges. The ongoing war in Ukraine and escalating military conflicts in the Middle East threaten international stability, while peace and security in the Asia–Pacific region are increasingly at risk due to intensifying US–China strategic competition. As the United States and China are both nuclear powers and pivotal actors in the IndoPacific, any potential military conflict between them would have catastrophic consequences with far-reaching implications for global stability. In this increasingly volatile context, a strategic approach is urgently needed to stabilize bilateral relations and prevent military conflicts between the United States and China. This report underscores the necessity of “reassurance” as a conflict prevention measure to address the growing risk of military confrontation and preserve the fragile “East Asian Peace” amid intensifying strategic competition. Reducing the likelihood of conflict between the United States and China is the central research objective of the Toda Peace Institute’s first Research Cluster (TRC) on Northeast Asia. To achieve this objective, this report examines key theoretical and empirical dimensions of US–China reassurance, focusing on the following critical questions:
Kai He is Professor of International Relations at the School of Government and International Relations, Griffith University, Australia. He served as a non-resident Senior Scholar at the United States Institute of Peace (2022-2023), an Australian Research Council (ARC) Future Fellow (2017-2020), and a postdoctoral fellow in the PrincetonHarvard China and the World Program (2009-2010). He is a co-editor of “Cambridge Elements in Indo-Pacific Security,” a short-book series published by Cambridge University Press. He has authored or co-authored seven books and edited or co-edited eight volumes. Among his notable works are After Hedging: Hard Choices for the Indo-Pacific States between the US and China (co-authored with Huiyun Feng, Cambridge Elements in IR, 2023), Contesting Revisionism: China, the United States, and Transformation of International Order (co-authored with Steve Chan, Huiyun Feng, Weixing Hu, Oxford, 2021), China’s Crisis Behavior: Political Survival and Foreign Policy (Cambridge, 2016), and International Organizations and Peaceful Change in World Politics (co-edited with T.V. Paul and Anders Wivel, Cambridge, 2025). His forthcoming book is The Upside of U.S.-Chinese Strategic Competition: Institutional Balancing and Order Transition in the Asia Pacific (co-authored with Huiyun Feng, Cambridge University Press, 2025).
Photo Credit: https://toda.org/assets/files/resources/policy-briefs/tr-217_us-china-reassurance_he.pdf
