ROBERT GATES THE FOGS OF FUTURE WARS: China and Russia think the future belongs to them

 

The Dysfunctional Superpower Can a Divided America Deter China and Russia? By Robert M. Gates A looming government shutdown, a partisan impeachment inquiry, and the former president facing multiple felony charges across four criminal cases. Add to this chaos a presidential election and it’s fair to say that the U.S. political system will be preoccupied with its own drama and division for some time.    Such paralysis could not come at a worse time, warns former U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert M. Gates in the upcoming issue of Foreign Affairs. The United States should be in a strong position to deter Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping—but “dysfunction has made American power erratic and unreliable, practically inviting risk-prone autocrats to place dangerous bets,” he writes in a new essay. “The United States finds itself in a uniquely treacherous position: facing aggressive adversaries with a propensity to miscalculate yet incapable of mustering the unity and strength necessary to dissuade them.” Only by working together can U.S. leaders contend with such grave threats, Gates writes. And “therein lies the rub.”

Read the essay

The Dysfunctional Superpower

Can a Divided America Deter China and Russia?

By Robert M. Gates

September 29, 2023