During President Donald Trump’s recent visit to Beijing, President Xi Jinping invoked the Thucydides Trap directly in his discussion with the American president.
Its use, for the first time during a summit with an American president, is symbolically important. Ideas matter in diplomacy. Words are never innocent at that level. They signal. They frame. They warn. They test intentions.
In two earlier articles on the Thucydides Trap , I argued
