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중국과 미국이 전쟁을 벌일 것인가? 그래엄 앨리슨 (Graham Allison)

by 원시 2018. 2. 27.

중국과 미국이 전쟁을 벌일 것인가?  자극적인 제목이다. 그래엄 앨리슨 (Graham Allison) 이 쓴 책,


전쟁을 벌일 숙명인가: 미국과 중국은 투키디데스 덫을 피할 수 있는가? Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap? 관련 기사다.


제목부터 별로 설득력은 없어 보인다. 왜냐하면 내가 알기로는 중국 시진핑 정권은 미국이 벌이는 전쟁터에 군사적으로 직접 개입하지 않고 있고, 중국 베트남 일본 타이완 필리핀 미국 등이 모두다 촉각을 세우고 있는 남지나 해상에서조차도 중국과 미국 해군은 나름대로 공조체제를 구축하고 있기 때문이다.


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그럼에도, 기사를 요약하자면


그래엄 앨러슨의 전제, 한 나라 (중국)가 현재 초강대국 위치를 선점하고 있는 미국에 위협세력이 되면, 중국과 미국 간에 전쟁이 발생할 수 있다. 기원전 BC 431-404 당시, 아테네의 급부상이 스파르타를 자극했고, 이것이 펠로포네스 전쟁으로 이어졌다.

15세기 이후  이러한 아테네와 스파르타와 유사한 사례 16가지를 분석했더니, 4가지 사례가 전쟁으로 귀결되었다.


중국과 미국이 전쟁을 할 가능성은, 

이미 헤게몬인 미국이 짜놓은 국제질서 규칙들에 대해서, 중국이 중국 가치관들을 가지고 그 미국이 주도해온 질서들에 도전할 때이다.


아래와 같은 조건들이 형성되면, 중국과 미국이 전쟁에 돌입할 수도 있다고 그래엄 앨리슨은 주장한다.


(1) 대만에 대한 중국과 미국의 입장 차이가 클 때,

(2) 김정은이 후계자 없이 사망하면,  미국 특공대 중국 특공대가 북한에 잠입해서 핵무기 창고를 먼저 뺏으려다가 서로 충돌한다.

(3) 미군에 대한 대대적인 사이버 공격이 벌어졌을 때,

(4) 미국이 중국 만리장성을 파괴했을 때,

(5) 트럼프 보호무역주의가 강화되어, 그것이  전쟁으로 번져 나갈 수 있다.





"투키디데스 덫 the Thucydides Trap" 


https://www.economist.com/news/books-and-arts/21724790-big-foreign-policy-question-worrying-washington-will-america-and-china-go?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/willamericaandchinagotowarthethucydidestrap

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the Thucydides TrapWill America and China go to war?

The big foreign-policy question that is worrying Washington



Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?By Graham Allison. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 384 pages; $28. Scribe; £18.99.



ON JULY 2nd an American guided-missile destroyer sailed within 12 nautical miles (22.2km) of Triton, a tiny Chinese-occupied island in the South China Sea.


 It was on a “freedom of navigation” operation, sailing through disputed waters to show China that others do not accept its territorial claims. Such operations infuriate China. But they have not brought the two superpowers to blows. So far.


Graham Allison, a Harvard scholar, thinks the world underestimates the risk of a catastrophic clash between China and the United States. When a rising power challenges an incumbent, carnage often ensues. Thucydides, an ancient historian, wrote of the Peloponnesian war of 431-404 BC that “It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.” 


Mr Allison has examined 16 similar cases since the 15th century. All but four ended in war. Mr Allison does not say that war between China and the United States is inevitable, but he thinks it “more likely than not”.


This alarming conclusion is shared by many in Washington, where Mr Allison’s book is causing a stir. So it is worth examining his reasoning. America has shaped a set of global rules to suit itself. China has different values and different interests which it would like others to accommodate. Disagreements are inevitable.


War would be disastrous for both sides, but that does not mean it cannot happen. No one wanted the first world war, yet it started anyway, thanks to a series of miscalculations. 


The Soviet Union and America avoided all-out war, but they came close. During the Cuban missile crisis in 1962, when the Soviets tried to smuggle nuclear missiles onto Cuba, 90 miles (145km) from Florida, there were at least a dozen close calls that could have led to war. 


When American ships dropped explosives around Soviet submarines to force them to surface, one Soviet captain thought he was under attack and nearly fired his nuclear torpedoes. When an American spy plane flew into Soviet airspace, Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader, worried that America was scoping targets for a nuclear first strike. Had he decided to pre-empt it, a third world war could have followed.


China and America could blunder into war in several ways, argues Mr Allison. A stand-off over Taiwan could escalate. North Korea’s dictator, Kim Jong Un, might die without an obvious heir, sparking chaos. American and Chinese special forces might rush into North Korea to secure the regime’s nuclear weapons, and clash. A big cyber-attack against America’s military networks might convince it that China was trying to blind its forces in the Pacific. American retaliation aimed at warning China off might have the opposite effect. 


Suppose that America crippled China’s Great Firewall, as a warning shot, and China saw this as an attempt to overthrow its government? With Donald Trump in the White House, Mr Allison worries that even a trade war might turn into a shooting war.


He is right that Mr Trump is frighteningly ignorant of America’s chief global rival, and that both sides should work harder to understand each other. But Mr Allison’s overall thesis is too gloomy. China is a cautious superpower. Its leaders stoke nationalist sentiment at home, but they have shown little appetite for military adventurism abroad. Yes, the Taiwan strait and the South China Sea are dangerous.


 But unlike the great powers of old, China has no desire to build a far-flung empire. And all the wars in Mr Allison’s sample broke out before the invention of nuclear weapons. China and America have enough of these to destroy the world. That alone makes war extremely unlikely.



This article appeared in the Books and arts section of the print edition under the headline "Fated to fight?"


최근 뉴스: 그래엄 앨리슨이 한국에 와서 강연을 했다 한다.





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