EAI Special Report: US-China Nuclear Competition

The East Asia Institute (EAI) publishes a special report predicting the possibility of military conflict arising from changes in the nuclear weapons development and security strategies of the US and China, and presenting potential scenarios. The research team examines the possibility that the deepening US-China strategic competition, occurring within the context of changes in US alliance strategy, development of low-yield nuclear weapons, China's expansion of its nuclear arsenal, and strengthening of authoritarianism, could lead to military actions, including the use of nuclear weapons, through accidental military conflict between the two countries. Specifically, it analyzes the potential for a US-China nuclear crisis in connection with issues such as horizontal proliferation between the US and China, strategic competition surrounding Taiwan, the North Korean nuclear issue and military tensions on the Korean Peninsula, and nuclear terrorism.

The contents of the report are as follows.

1. Lee Jeong-seok & Kim Yang-gyu, Theoretical Review of the Possibility of a US-China Nuclear Crisis [Read Report]

2. Shin Sung-ho, US Integrated Deterrence and the Emergence of New Low-Yield Nuclear Weapons: Possibility of Using Limited Nuclear Weapons on the Korean Peninsula [Read Report]

3. Lee Jung-gu, The Taiwan Issue and the Possibility of US-China Conflict [Read Report]

4. Heather Williams, Bolstering U.S.-ROK Cooperation on Nuclear Governance [Read Report]

5. Gary Samore, Implications of the Nuclear Build up in Asia [Read Report]

6. Francesca Giovannini, The Multilateralism Way [Read Report]

7. Matthew Bunn, Deterring without Provoking [Read Report]

8. Jia Qingguo, Imposed Strategic Competition [Read Report]

9. Zhang Tuosheng, China-US Nuclear Dynamics [Read Report]

10. Ouyang Wei, Several Strategic Issues Concerning the Korean Peninsula [Read Report]