Cultural Pragmatism for US-China Relations

Charles Chao Rong Phua runs Solaris Strategies Singapore (and chairs Solaris Consortium of Management Consultancies) dedicated to pragmatically solving complex problems involving governments, corporates and underserved non-profits at sector and enterprise levels. This follows two decades in government functioning as head research trainer in defence and chief external affairs supporting cities and infrastructural diplomacy. Charles also presides over the Association for Public Affairs (Singapore) spearheading active citizenry in policymaking and served as chief judge for the Singapore Model Cabinet and Parliament series organised by the government. He is an internationally certified management consultant, facilitator, project manager, SAFe agile practitioner with a doctorate in public policy, degrees in international relations, security management, education, accounting, organisational psychology, systems thinking and law, and completed executive education in strategy, innovation, entrepreneurship, sustainability and marketing from leading business schools: Harvard, MIT, Stanford, Wharton, Kellogg, Berkeley, Babson, INSEAD, Cambridge, Oxford, London Business School. He currently serves as series editor for Routledge series for strategy, wisdom and skills with a commitment to codify academic + practitioner wisdom in applied and interdisciplinary fields. He is adjunct faculty specialising in applied problem-solving at the National University of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore Management University, Singapore University of Social Sciences, University of St Gallen and Civil Service College Singapore. He was a Fulbright fellow with resident fellowships at Brookings Institution, Columbia and Johns Hopkins.

1. From trade war to cold war? 2. Why does China punch below its weight in international relations theory? 3. Sunzi in the US military thinking: A case of cultural misunderstanding 4. The origins of Chinese political thought 5. Modern Chinese international relations theory 6. Separating military and economic leadership in international relations 7. Conclusion: a non-zero-sum vision of international relations Post-script: Tribute to Robert Jervis