On Tuesday, March 29th, Dr. Ionut Popescu delivered an Inklings presentation to an audience of faculty and graduate students. The talk focused on China-U.S. relations, specifically on what Dr. Popescu coined “Cold War II”: a state of Great Power conflict coalescing in the aftermath of the U.S.’s post-Cold-War hegemony.
To examine the brewing conflict, Dr. Popescu drew on his extensive knowledge of American and Chinese grand strategy to predict how these powers would butt heads. Dr. Popescu predicts that unlike the first Cold War, Cold War II is unlikely to be fought through proxy wars, as China is disinclined towards military intervention—though this could change in Taiwan or the South China Sea. Rather, Cold War II, Popescu argued, would mostly be fought economically and diplomatically, as China aims to break up American financial and diplomatic hegemony, secure access to high-tech resources like lithium, and become the foremost industrial power through command of forwards-looking industries like AI, supercomputing, and robotics. Meanwhile, America and her allies would mostly be focused on warding off the Chinese push for hegemony by maintaining the liberal world order and competing for control of key resources. This conflict, Dr. Popescu argued, will likely play out over the span of 50 years, though this timetable has been accelerated in the eyes of the Chinese by a perceived weakness in American power.
One student described the talk as “insightful,” observing that Dr. Popescu used his knowledge of world affairs “to paint a convincing picture of the future of politics on the world stage.” Another student commented on and how clear, “well-organized,” and “well-paced” the talk was.
Details about the Inklings series can be viewed here. For more information on the series, please contact Dr. Arnold Leder at al04@txstate.edu.
