The relationship between the US and China, the world’s two superpowers, is peculiarly volatile. It rests on a seismic fault—of cultural misunderstanding, historical grievance, and ideological incompatibility. No other nations are so quick to offend and be offended. Their militaries play a dangerous game of chicken, corporations steal intellectual property, intelligence satellites peer, and AI technicians plot. The capacity for either country to cross a fatal line grows daily.

The Avoidable War demystifies the actions of both sides, explaining and translating them for the benefit of the other. Geopolitical disaster is still avoidable, but only if these two giants can find a way to coexist without betraying their core interests through what Rudd calls “managed strategic competition.” Should they fail, down that path lies the possibility of a war that could rewrite the future of both countries, and the world.

Please click HERE for the video recording or visit EAI’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/EastAsianInstituteNUS.

Speaker: Kevin Rudd is president and CEO of Asia Society and has been president of the Asia Society Policy Institute since January 2015. He served as Australia’s 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, then as Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2012, before returning as Prime Minister in 2013. Rudd graduated from the Australian National University with honours in Chinese studies, and is fluent in Mandarin. He also studied at the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei.

Commentators:
James Crabtree | Executive Director, IISS–Asia
Chan Heng Chee | Ambassador-at-Large, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Singapore

Chairperson:
Bert Hofman | Director, EAI and Professor in Practice Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, NUS