Vanishing Trade Space: Assessing the Prospects for Great Power Cooperation in an Era of Competition, A Project Overview
Abstract
To what extent can the United States still cooperate with China and Russia in certain areas even in this era of strategic competition? On which issues? What are the obstacles, the potential benefits, and the risks associated with great power cooperation? This report, the first of a four-part series, presents the overarching findings of a study that explored these questions. The authors find that the trade space for cooperation is already narrow; that the obstacles to cooperation-- particularly the absence of trust-- are growing; that there are comparatively few wedge issues to play China and Russia off of one another; and that the side benefits of pursuing cooperation over competition do not clearly outweigh the costs of doing so. In other words, any cooperation between the powers will be rare and needs to be narrowly focused on making competition safe, and U.S. leaders should expect that the era of strategic competition will be here to stay for the foreseeable future.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Feb 21, 2023
- Accession Number
- AD1193634
Entities
People
- Asha Clark
- Ashley L. Rhoades
- Elina Treyger
- Kit Conn
- Marta Kepe
- Michelle Grise
- Nathan Beauchamp-mustafaga
- Nathan Vest
- Raphael S. Cohen
- Roby Valiaveedu
- Scott W. Harold
- Soo Kim
Organizations
- RAND Corporation