America’s Advantage against China: A Conversation with Matt Kroenig

By Matthew Kroenig & Mark Tooley on May 5, 2020

Mark Tooley interviews Matt Kroenig, and they discuss his latest book, The Return of Great Power Rivalry: Democracy versus Autocracy from the Ancient World to the US and China. After the global financial crisis of 2007–08, many suggested America’s model of open market democracy failed and China’s state-led capitalism performed better. But in Return of Great Power Rivalry, Kroenig comes to a different conclusion: democracies have an advantage in international relations. He also says the COVID-19 pandemic reinforces many of the book’s themes, and the pandemic has amplified the great power rivalry. Kroenig also explains historical lessons from previous geopolitical rivalries, including the strengths democracies have. Tooley and Kroenig also discuss the pessimism some Americans have about the United States’ ability to compete with China.

Matthew Kroenig is a professor in the Department of Government and the Edmund A. Walsh School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He is also the director of the Global Strategy Initiative and deputy director of the Scowcroft Center for Strategy and Security at the Atlantic Council. His books include The Logic of American Nuclear Strategy and The Return of Great Power Rivalry.

Mark Tooley is IRD’s president and editor of IRD’s foreign policy and national security journal, Providence. Prior to joining the IRD in 1994, Mark worked eight years for the Central Intelligence Agency. He is a graduate of Georgetown University and is a native of Arlington, Virginia. He is the author of Taking Back The United Methodist Church, published in 2008; Methodism and Politics in the 20th Century, published in 2012; and The Peace That Almost Was: The Forgotten Story of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference and the Final Attempt to Avert the Civil War, published in 2015.

Follow Mark on Twitter: @markdtooley