Uploaded February 2026 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
In recent years, Washington has adopted a confrontational grand strategy toward China, focusing on countering China’s rise and defending U.S. strategic dominance in the Asia-Pacific. The implicit assumption is that China’s rise poses an all-encompassing threat to longstanding U.S. interests in Asia, and the U.S. must enhance its commitment to protecting all of those interests.
In his new book, Retrench, Defend, Compete: Securing America’s Future Against a Rising China, Charles Glaser, senior fellow in MIT’s Security Studies program, rebuts much of this argument. He contends that not only is it infeasible for the U.S. to pursue strategic dominance in Asia against China’s rise, but trying to do so would also hurt long-term U.S. competitiveness and greatly increase the risk of a catastrophic war with China. To avoid this dangerous trajectory and pursue a more intelligent, long-term competition with Beijing, Glaser argues that Washington should selectively retrench from high-risk, nonvital commitments, such as Taiwan, while focusing on defending truly vital interests, including the homeland, key treaty allies, and access to the global commons.
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In recent years, Washington has adopted a confrontational grand strategy toward China, focusing on countering China’s rise and defending U.S. strategic dominance in the Asia-Pacific. The implicit assumption is that China’s rise poses an all-encompassing threat to longstanding U.S. interests in Asia, and the U.S. must enhance its commitment to protecting all of those interests.
In his new book, Retrench, Defend, Compete: Securing America’s Future Against a Rising China, Charles Glaser, senior fellow in MIT’s Security Studies program, rebuts much of this argument. He contends that not only is it infeasible for the U.S. to pursue strategic dominance in Asia against China’s rise, but trying to do so would also hurt long-term U.S. competitiveness and greatly increase the risk of a catastrophic war with China. To avoid this dangerous trajectory and pursue a more intelligent, long-term competition with Beijing, Glaser argues that Washington should selectively retrench from high-risk, nonvital commitments, such as Taiwan, while focusing on defending truly vital interests, including the homeland, key treaty allies, and access to the global commons.
###
Quincy Institute is an independent, nonprofit think tank.
Help fund our research: quincyinst.org/donations
Read our reporting: ResponsibleStatecraft.org
Twitter: https://x.com/QuincyInst
TikTok: tiktok.com/quincyinst
Facebook: facebook.com/quincyinst
Instagram: instagram.com//quincyinst
Website: quincyinst.org
