THE AVOIDABLE WAR

From the former Prime Minister of Australia and head of the Asia Society who is the only G-7 leader educated in China comes a the road map for a way forward for the US and China to avoid a superpower conflict; a chilling vision of what that might look like if unleashed.

The escalating horror in Ukraine confirms that international tensions are running higher than ever before; if cooler heads are to prevail, then the guidance of distinguished statesmen will be more valuable than ever. The Avoidable War provides such guidance and Kevin Rudd, former Prime Minister of Australia and the President and CEO of the Asia Society, is such a statesman. His lifelong study of China is brought to life in this book which only grows more relevant each day as China begins to engage with this crisis and perhaps prepares one of its own. In his book Kevin Rudd confronts the growing sense that the US-China relationship is beginning to hurtle out of control. Nationalists have gained ground in the politics of both capitals. So-called "realists" are in control of their respective national security policy agendas. "Liberal internationalists", let alone "multilateralists", are written off. And the United States has now formally concluded that forty years of "strategic engagement" between China and the United States has now come to an end, and ended in failure, and that we have now entered into a new era of "strategic competition". There are no rules on this new road. A broad economic, cyber and high technology war, and perhaps a broader economic decoupling, is likely to become a continuing reality. As is the widening gulf in the foreign policy, national security policy and international economic policy perceptions and practice of both. We are not yet at crisis point. But we seem to be headed relentlessly in that direction. The purpose of this book is to challenge those politicians, strategists and generals on both sides as they happily embark on the slippery slope of decoupling, containment, confrontation, conflict and Cold War. Even the unthinkable: war itself. Instead Rudd focuses on the pursuit of a common strategic narrative for the future that might still be sufficiently acceptable to both sides, an understanding of the past and a vision of the future that might just reduce the risk of catastrophe. Kevin Rudd is president and CEO of Asia Society and has been president of the Asia Society Policy Institute since January 2015. He served as Australia's 26th Prime Minister from 2007 to 2010, then as Foreign Minister from 2010 to 2012, before returning as Prime Minister in 2013. Rudd graduated from the Australian National University with honors in Chinese studies, and is fluent in Mandarin. He also studied at the National Taiwan Normal University in Taipei.