It was my belief that the counterfactual was that the rest of world agreed to stand by and allow China to take over all of the non-democratic world. The US would have faced a lot of flack if it decided to annex Iraq, yes. However, the only people who could effectively fight us in a non-Westphalian world are Russia and China. The entire Muslim world could be conquered (in the sense that got George Bush to say “Mission Accomplished”) in less than 2 years. The US, however, would not embrace the tactics necessary to pacify that territory, nor would we be able to raise the number of troops necessary to control the territory. China, on the other hand, has a 2.25 million strong army and the ability to impress far more and to engage in the sorts of tactics that allow actual pacification.
I’m not sure we hold different views then. A world where no one objects to China taking over the non-Democratic world is a very different world from the one that we live in. Nonetheless, in that world it would be a decent idea.
It was my belief that the counterfactual was that the rest of world agreed to stand by and allow China to take over all of the non-democratic world. The US would have faced a lot of flack if it decided to annex Iraq, yes. However, the only people who could effectively fight us in a non-Westphalian world are Russia and China. The entire Muslim world could be conquered (in the sense that got George Bush to say “Mission Accomplished”) in less than 2 years. The US, however, would not embrace the tactics necessary to pacify that territory, nor would we be able to raise the number of troops necessary to control the territory. China, on the other hand, has a 2.25 million strong army and the ability to impress far more and to engage in the sorts of tactics that allow actual pacification.
I’m not sure we hold different views then. A world where no one objects to China taking over the non-Democratic world is a very different world from the one that we live in. Nonetheless, in that world it would be a decent idea.