Harper Lecture with John J. Mearsheimer: Can China Rise Peacefully?

There is good reason to think China's rise might be the most important development in world politics during the 21st century. America is now the dominant great power in the Asia-Pacific region, and it is often a jealous god. That raises the question: is a powerful China likely to clash with the United States? Moreover, can a rising China live peacefully with its neighbors, including Japan, India, and Vietnam? Mearsheimer will argue that, if China's economic growth continues, it will build much more powerful military forces than it now has and attempt to dominate Asia the way the United States dominates the Western Hemisphere. However, the US and China's neighbors will go to great lengths to contain China and prevent it from becoming a regional hegemon--leading to an intense security competition in the Asia-Pacific region, with the ever-present danger of war.

John J. Mearsheimer is the R. Wendell Harrison distinguished service professor of political science and codirector of the Program on International Security Policy at the University of Chicago, where he has taught since 1982. He graduated from West Point in 1970 and served five years as an officer in the US Air Force before receiving his PhD from Cornell in 1980. Winner of the 1985 Quantrell Award for distinguished teaching, Mearsheimer has written extensively about security issues and international politics, publishing numerous journal articles and five books, including the 2011 Why Leaders Lie: The Truth about Lying in International Politics, which has been translated into ten different languages.