Grand strategy in the United States and China

Abstract

This chapter examines how grand strategy is conceptualized and implemented in the United States and China, focusing on the relationship between regime type and strategic continuity. Drawing on the distinction between grand plans, grand principles, and grand behavior, it traces major shifts in U.S. strategy from hemispheric priorities to Cold War containment and post-9/11 interventionism and follows Chinese strategic developments from Mao Zedong through reform and opening-up and subsequent multilateral engagement. It then compares the two states' approaches to threat perception, strategic transparency, domestic legitimacy, and the instruments used to shape international order. The chapter argues that electoral turnover and institutional checks in the United States generate more visible adjustments in strategic execution, while China's one-party structure supports greater continuity in overarching objectives, notwithstanding tactical change. It concludes by identifying the limits of strategy documents as predictors of state behavior in both systems.