Credibility is especially important when facing a mighty aspirant like China, because Beijing’s employment of a focused and sequential strategy can play on the fundamental misalignment of interests and perspectives among the states in the anti-hegemonic coalition, particularly between an external cornerstone balancer like the United States and its regional confederates. A very powerful aspirant such as China can try to frame a conflict as largely about local issues—about disputed claims, for instance, or matters of internal sovereignty—so that the stakes appear remote to Americans and other
...more
