Conclusion

This chapter summarizes the book’s main argument, outlines its contribution to international relations scholarship, and applies the argument to current debates about the rise of China. Two positions dominate current debates about US foreign policy and the rise of China: engagement, which calls for integrating China deeply into the global economy and institutional architecture of the international order; and containment, which sees security competition as an inevitable outgrowth of Chinese power, and calls for the United States to preemptively increase its military presence in the region. This chapter argues that by focusing narrowly on China’s economic and military interests, the current debate misses an important aspect of China’s rise because it fails to consider the social motivations of rising great powers. Building on the core argument of this book, it suggests that only by accepting China’s recognition-claims can the United States facilitate China’s peaceful rise. The chapter concludes by exploring how the United States might navigate a foreign policy that both approaches China as a recognized partner in leading the international order and also protects its regional and global interests—and if such recognition is even possible.