Dan Rosen

U.S.-China: more decoupling ahead?

Graham Allison, Dan Rosen, Alison Nathan

Graham Allison characterizes current U.S.-China relations as the worst in over fifty years, driven by a historical Thucydides Trap and diverging national identities, while Dan Rosen identifies systemic economic model divergence as a primary engine of decoupling. Despite intensifying geopolitical tensions and collapsing foreign direct investment flows outside of a handful of major corporations, Allison advocates for a "rivalry partnership" framework to manage competition on existential threats like climate change and nuclear stability. The outlook suggests that while Biden's upcoming investment curbs will serve primarily as notification regimes, a sustained reduction in engagement remains probable unless Beijing implements decisive market reforms to address its stagnating productivity.