American and Chinese Exceptionalism and “The New Cold War” Rhetoric | Conversation with Claes Ryn

As part of IPD’s ongoing series on U.S.-China relations, Professor Claes Ryn Sits down with Dr. Arta Moeini to dissect some underlying causes of the New Cold War rhetoric and review the historical, philosophical, and moral reasons that could drive U.S. public and elites alike toward hysteria and threat inflation. They discuss the clear linkages between idealism, exceptionalism, and war/militarism. How might the bifurcated lens of American and Chinese exceptionalism help policymakers in Asia and the North Atlantic better understand the escalatory path that might lead to confrontation between the West and China. In what ways could the differing sense of exceptionalism among Chinese and American elites inform the alternate strategic posture of US and China?

One way to make sense of the recent rise in hawkishness and the peculiarities of statecraft and strategic culture among Washington and Beijing is to think about the different political and ideational traditions and historical particularities of US and China. As for the U.S., Ryn calls attention to what he calls Neo-Jacobinism an idealistic and missionary streak embedded in US statecraft/foreign policy that has historically impelled and normalized projects of empire and armed moralism. Alternatively, many Chinese elites remain beholden to an older, more isolationist, and self-contained vision of statecraft that is historically informed by Confucianism and tradition, which Ryn argues continue to permeate into and interact with the ideology of the Modern Communist party in interesting ways.

The discussion centers on the philosophical, historical, cultural, political, and ideological dimensions of foreign affairs that are often overlooked in overly securitized and militarized framing of international relations that define the world in Manichean terms. A fresh focus on shared traditions of virtue and restraint among different civilizations, though unconventional and uncommon today, could help uncover the preconditions for peaceful international relations premised on diplomacy, mutual respect, and understanding among statesmen, peoples, and civilizations.

Claes G. Ryn: Professor & Founding Director of the Center for the Study of Statesmanship, The Catholic University of America.