James Brunson
Published: 2017
Total Pages: 74
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"The international environment of the new millennium marks a significant departure from the international system of the post-World-War II (WWII) period. With the fall of the Soviet Union, the United States became the most powerful and influential state in the international system. As China's political, military, and economic influences in the international system continue to grow, the likelihood of a return to multi-polarity, with a security and affluence peer to the United States, is not an unreasonable prediction. Current popular opinion suggests that the United States and China are adamantly opposing forces in the international system. Therefore, creating a framework to base an understanding of the current relationship between two like states is valuable for informing subsequent actions, whereby the instruments of national power are employed to balance the elements of mutual security and mutual affluence, and limit negative influences from external factors, to achieve sustained stability. This study uses two historical examples, Japan and the European Union following WWII, to demonstrate how the United States successfully paired security and affluence elements of the DIME-FIL model, which reduced the negative influences of external factors and created sustained stability. The case studies offer key insights and perspectives for considering how like states can achieve stability. Those insights and perspectives are then used to analyze the relationship between the United States and China, and propose options designed to reduce the likelihood of the two states approaching the threshold of war. Counter to predominant thought, the research suggests that security and affluence parity is not a requirement for stability. Further, in the absence of mutual security, an overcompensating degree of mutual affluence between states can empower stability. The importance of external factors in building this relationship cannot be underemphasized. The research suggests external factors can create a destabilizing force that must be countered through deliberate employment of the instruments of national power. Creating stability between the United States and China will involve a give-and-take mentality, whereby affluence takes precedence over security, and cooperation takes precedence over national objectives."--pages v-vi.