Could a few tiny islets in the East China Sea help light the fire that sparks a wider conflagration in East Asia? What about preventive strikes on North Korean nuclear and missile sites? A collision near one of Beijing¡¯s man-made islands in the South China Sea?
An influential Harvard scholar who literally wrote the book on the chances of a U.S. war with China believes these are all possibilities ¡ª and ones that would also pull in Japan.
Graham Allison, a professor at Harvard¡¯s Kennedy School of Government and the author of ¡°Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides¡¯s Trap?¡°, sat down with The Japan Times for a wide-ranging interview in Tokyo earlier this month to discuss the role the disputed Senkaku Islands and North Korean nukes could play in triggering a Sino-U.S. conflict, and how such an event would affect Japan.
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