By Jeffrey Payne
There are strong arguments to suggest they should, if only the political hang-ups could be overcome.
Amidst a relationship that is expected to define international relations in this century, efforts are underway to find ways for the United States and the People’s Republic of China to cooperate on counterterrorism. As powerful states that thrive in part because of their entanglement within the global economic system, both the U.S. and China are disproportionately threatened by the emergence of instability within that same system.
While it is true that the U.S. and China have different methodologies through which they interact with the larger world – the U.S. prefers multinational partnerships backed by American security guarantees while China favors a system of bilateral relations and the pursuit of regional hegemony in East Asia – both recognize that terrorism is a trans-border threat. Moreover, as both countries are potential targets of terrorist organizations and both are economically tied to regions regularly destabilized by terror, it follows that the U.S. and China would have a shared interest in combating global terrorism. However, they have yet to cooperate. The reason for this is political, not strategic.
Read the full story at The Diplomat