Episode 2073: Sulmaan Wasif Khan on the past, present and future conflict between America and China over Taiwan

Along with Ukraine and Gaza, Taiwan represents the third leg of our increasingly wobbly international political system. This week, for example, the Chinese navy put on military drills off the Taiwanese coast designed, supposedly, to test its ability to “seize power”. So is the world on the brink of a third world war between China and the United States? Perhaps, according to the Tufts university scholar and author of The Struggle for Taiwan, Sulmaan Wasif Khan, who compares the current highly militarized situation in the East China Sea with the situation in Europe before World War One. In our KEEN ON conversation, Khan brings some historical perspective to the situation in Taiwan, even comparing the current geopolitical tensions of the island with the Cuban situation during the Sixties. Sulmaan Wasif Khan holds the Denison Chair in International History and Chinese Foreign Relations at the Fletcher School, Tufts University. He is the author of HAUNTED BY CHAOS: CHINA'S GRAND STRATEGY FROM MAO ZEDONG TO XI JINPING (Harvard University Press) and MUSLIM, TRADER, NOMAD, SPY: CHINA'S COLD WAR AND THE PEOPLE OF THE TIBETAN BORDERLANDS (University of North Carolina Press). He has written for Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, and The Economist. He has been a participant in NIC seminars and has spoken on China at INDOPACOM. His new book THE STRUGGLE FOR TAIWAN: A HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES, CHINA, AND THE ISLAND CAUGHT BETWEEN is published by Basic Books (US) and Allen Lane (UK and Commonwealth). Named as one of the "100 most connected men" by GQ magazine, Andrew Keen is amongst the world's best known broadcasters and commentators. In addition to presenting KEEN ON, he is the host of the long-running How To Fix Democracy show. He is also the author of four prescient books about digital technology: CULT OF THE AMATEUR, DIGITAL VERTIGO, THE INTERNET IS NOT THE ANSWER and HOW TO FIX THE FUTURE. Andrew lives in San Francisco, is married to Cassandra Knight, Google's VP of Litigation & Discovery, and has two grown children.Keen On is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit keenon.substack.com/subscribe