Rising Dragon

The environment the U.S. will face in 2035 raises interesting questions. How do we, the U.S., deter a rising China from unduly influencing our freedom of action in the future? What exactly will the landscape look like at that time? Are there any lessons we can learn from Cold War deterrence principles that can help the strategist in the future? Are nuclear weapons both necessary and sufficient to deter a rising China? These are some of the questions that this paper will answer. To that end, this paper argues that a combination of economic interdependence and advances in both cyber and space technologies will greatly complicate deterrent strategies against a rising China, posing numerous dilemmas and opportunities.