Description

With the strategic conflict between the U.S., China, and Russia intensifying, alliance politics has once again become a critical area of competition between the great powers. In this arena, strategies to weaken and divide opponent’s alliances will play an increasingly important role. Crawford will provide an overview of some key ideas about how such “wedge” strategies work and of areas in U.S. grand strategy where such strategies matter, with a special focus on current controversies over the U.S., should deal with growing China-Russia alignment.

Biography

Timothy W. Crawford (Ph.D., Columbia University) is Associate Professor of Political Science at Boston College. His research focuses on alliance politics and strategies. His recent work includes: “The Power to Divide: Wedge Strategies in Great Power Competition” (Cornell University Press, 2021), “Arms Control as Wedge Strategy” (International Security, Fall 2021), and “How to Distance Russia from China” (Washington Quarterly, Fall 2021). He is also the author of “Pivotal Deterrence: Third Party Statecraft and the Pursuit of Peace” (Cornell University Press, 2003), winner of the 2003 Edgar S. Furniss Award, and editor (with Alan J. Kuperman) of “Gambling on Humanitarian Intervention: Moral Hazard, Rebellion, and Civil War” (Routledge, 2006). Before joining Boston College, Dr. Crawford was a national security fellow at the Olin Institute of Strategic Studies, a postdoctoral fellow in Foreign Policy Studies at the Brookings Institution and the Center for International Studies at Princeton University, and a term-member of the Council on Foreign Relations.