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The cultural differences between the US (especially in 1900 as you say) and Britain, and the US and China today are much more significant. I don't think these t

• smacktoward 11y ago
  I didn't say that it was inevitable that a rising China would have as good a relationship as the one that emerged between Britain and the U.S. In fact I would classify it as unlikely, precisely because America and China lack the cultural bonds. My point was more limited -- simply that waning hegemons always see rising challengers as great threats, which they don't always turn out to be. EDIT: To see how the U.S.-U.K. alliance was not necessarily the sure thing it appears to be in hindsight, look into War Plan Red (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Red https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_Plan_Red). The U.S. actively maintained a strategic plan for fighting a war with Britain as late as 1939.