US Historical Challenges: A Comparasion Between the Cold War and the US-China Competition

Abstract

At the end of the Cold War, the US became the only superpower in the international system, but this situation continued until 2010, when China became the second economic power. The relation between the US and China is very complicated compared to the relationship between the US and the USSR during the Cold War. In the first case, the two powers combine the economic cooperation with the international competition, whereas in the second the two superpowers try to impose their political and economic system in the entire world. The USSR was using a political and military strategy, whereas China was using the economic expansion in order to change the international order and the regional power distribution. Also, the Chinese soft power was not as powerful as was the Russian soft power in order to influence the Western elites to support the Chinese political and economic model. Even though between the USSR and China there are many differences, China was determined to challenge the liberal order and to compete with the US. For the moment, there is not a clear winner between the US and China, but the next twenty years are going to be shaped by this competition.

Keywords

• regional hegemon
• soft power
• economical competition
• technological competition