Stephen Roach Publishes Major Book on U.S.-China Relationship

Paul Tsai China Center Senior Fellow Stephen Roach has published a major new book on the increasingly fraught U.S.-China relationship, Accidental Conflict: America, China, and the Clash of False Narratives (Yale University Press, November 2022).

Publication of the book has led to over 75 book talks around the world for Roach — both in-person (in the U.S., Hong Kong, China, and the U.K.) and virtual (in the U.S., Asia, and Europe) — as well as a number of related interviews, podcasts, and opinion pieces published on major global media platforms.

The Financial Times named Accidental Conflict one of the best books of 2022 and the book was published in paperback in June 2023.

While the U.S.-China conflict has been brewing for some time, the book focuses on the worrisome trajectory of conflict escalation between the two nations since 2018. Over the subsequent five years, a trade war quickly morphed into a tech war, and Roach argues there are early signs of a new Cold War. Friction between the two countries intensified further after a spy balloon was shot down by the U.S. in February 2023, underscoring growing risks that major conflict escalation could be ignited by any one of several sparks, such as tensions in Taiwan and the South China Sea.

Accidental Conflict concludes with a three-part proposal for conflict resolution: It features a trust-building agenda, a pro-growth reduction of investment barriers framed around a Bilateral Investment Treaty, and a proposal for a U.S.-China Secretariat as a new architecture of U.S.-China engagement.

A recent article in The Wire China fleshed out the detail of the secretariat proposal. Roach’s upcoming travel, speaking and writing commitments will be aimed at stimulating debate on the imperatives of conflict resolution between the two superpowers — before it is too late.