Strategy & Tactics Quarterly #16: Next War - China

China has been expanding its reach economically, politically, and militarily. The US remains its chief adversary on every level, but what strategies will be most effective in containing the burgeoning superpower? China's long history gives it a wealth of political-military principles to direct its likely moves; the failure to understand them could doom its opposition. This is an examination of the potential for war, and of its disparate battlefields in the air, on land, at and under the sea, in space, and in the digital world.

Magazine Contents:

Prologue: Taiwan 202X - The island of Taiwan is considered part of China by Beijing. Converting that claim from theoretical to actual is only one of several touch points for potential US-China War.

Part I: How China Could Win the War - In barely a quarter century, China's economy has mushroomed, underwriting Beijing's means to extend Chinese influence and military power.

Ch 1: View From Beijing - Chinese strategy, born of centuries of careful study, emphasizes a long-term view of operations, of which armed conflict is ideally only the denouement.

Ch 2: Friend of the People - Economic power underwrites military power and provides an entree for military bases oversees.

Ch 3: Dragon's Teeth - China's once crude military has been transformed into a multi-capable, high-tech organization.

Ch 4: Ultimate High Ground - China has made great strides in recent years to expands its space-based capabilities, and attack those of other powers.

Ch 5: New Fifth Column - The first tentative steps at independent cyber-attacks have led to a massive upgrading of China's cyber capabilities.

Part II: How China Could Lose the War - For all its advances in recent years, China still lags behind the US in a number of critical categories of warmaking capacity.

Ch 6: View From Washington - The present US strategy toward China is what amounts to "containment." It is intended to deter a war rather than position US forces for victory in one.

Ch 7: Old Money - The speed of China's rise causes as much fear as hope, opening the door for reassertion of traditional relationships.

Ch 8: Flexing Dormant Muscles - The Chinese military is not yet in a position to assure victory over the powerful, but disperse US armed forces.

Ch 9: The New Battlefield - The US has a huge lead in space-based asset, giving it time to reinvigorate and restructure its space activities.

Ch 10: Cybersecurity - China's offensive cyber capacity is not matched - yet - by an ability to protect its own cyber assets.