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by Charles Chao Rong Phua (Author)
The Thucydides trap and a US-China face-off are not structurally inevitable; US-China relations are what the US and China make of them. Phua focuses on the ability to see "US as US" and "China as China" to trigger both countries' cultural tendencies towards pragmatism.
Phua examines China's arduous journey to fit in the Westphalian system, the deep cultural misunderstandings by the West of Sunzi's The Art of War, and attempts to offer an inside-out cultural synthesis of classical and modern Chinese thought as a proxy of their operational code, beyond the standard clichés about Confucian and Daoist thought. He builds on Jervis' perception and misperception as well as Alastair Johnston's cultural realism. Readers will benefit from a culturally-Chinese, western-educated and politically neutral understanding of "China as China".
An essential primer for academics, practitioners and students of international relations, diplomacy and Chinese culture.
Author Biography
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.
