China's Unpeaceful Rise Analysis

The rise of China and whether it will rise peacefully or not is a large question in international politics today. When looking at the article China’s Unpeaceful Rise by John J. Mearsheimer, we see that he believes China will not rise in a peaceful manner. This essay will assess the realist theories used by Mearsheimer to predict that the future relations between China and America will not be peaceful by looking at States living in anarchy and the main objective of a state, survival, according to the realist theory used by Mearsheimer as well as America as the only regional hegemon, who have historically done everything in their power to prevent regional hegemons in other regions from forming to maintain their position as the most powerful sovereign
The usual way to ensure safety is to aquire military power that is unmatched, according to Mearsheimer “the best way to survive in a system such as this [anarchic] system is to be as powerful as possible”, this is what a growing country like China will try to do to ensure its safety. This assumed aquiring of strength by China begs the question, Will its Neighbours react and try stop China dominating the region ? According to Mearsheimer and a realist outlook on International relations the anwer is yes. Countries like Japan and Russia will also want to ensure their safety and sovereignty in this anarchy and this could lead to an unpeaceful confrontation and even more so America would support these countries by means of coaliton to ensure a fair balance of power, as well as an attempt to stay the world’s on regional hegemon, if America does in fact help other States in Asia Sino-American relations with obviously
Althought America now no longer needs to worry about its neighbours such as Mexico and Canada, as country living in anarchy would America still worry about the threat of another State outside of its region becoming dominant. As a result of this regional hegemons must ensure that no States in other regions follow their example and become great powers in their own regions, a State wanting to become a great power is to ensure the safety of its State, the safety and survival of a State comes before any other interests of the State and falls under the theory of Raison