Making their Nations Great Again. US–China Rivalry under the Trump Administration

Since the ‘China threat’ theory was elaborated in the second half of the nineties by American scholars – according to which China’s economic and military rise poses a threat to global security – the debate on China’s leading role in the international context has remained topical and ongoing. International analysts continue to question whether China will become a new superpower capable of supplanting the US. Graham Allison’s recent volume, Destined for War. Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap? (Scribe, 2017), takes up the concept he already expounded in an article published in the “Financial Times” in 2012 and again brings these issues to the attention of international public opinion. The aim of this paper is to take a look at American perspectives on the ‘China threat’ issue in recent years, especially referring to the concept of the ‘Chinese Dream’.