The question of what U.S. strategy should ultimately look like is still unanswered.

"The problem is that it is far from clear that Kennan's strategy will work today. The U.S. now faces two nuclear-armed great-power rivals, in addition to a host of smaller threats, while possessing a fraction of the relative economic strength that we did after World War II. America's primary competitor, China, has an economy that will soon be larger than America's and Europe's combined (in contrast to the Soviet Union's economy, which, as Niall Ferguson has noted, was never larger than 44% of America's). Unlike the Soviets, the Chinese have a thriving private sector that is intimately bound up with our own. And while China is ruled by a communist government, its actions are not driven by the desire to convert other countries into ideological replicants, as Soviet actions were.

 

These differences, especially the scale of Chinese power, create a problem for Mr. Brands's argument. Even a reader who is inclined to accept the Cold War analogy can't help wondering if containment will work against a threat like China. Can a country with 1.4 billion people and the world's largest economy be gradually strangulated in the way the economically backward Soviets were? Will cutting off U.S. capital, trade and technology ties with China hurt them more than us? Will U.S. allies be willing to distance themselves from China's economy on ideological grounds? Recent experience suggests that the answer to all of these questions is a resounding "no."

 

China's growing technological edge gets parenthetical treatment -- we need to aim at "retarding China's growth and innovation through technological denial," though it's unclear how.” [1]

 

 Landsbergiai family's strategy for Lithuania is already in place: banging our heads into the Great Wall of China until there is enough blood from our heads for the West to notice our efforts and give us semolina enogh to survive and continue to produce popular between Facebook users jokes.

 

1. REVIEW --- Books: Welcome To the New Cold War

A. Wess Mitchell.

Wall Street Journal, Eastern edition; New York, N.Y. [New York, N.Y]. 30 Apr 2022: C.7.