“Between Equal Powers:” Salvaging Constructive Engagement Through Environmental Cooperation

Abstract

The relationship between China and the United States is increasingly tense, as the United States shifts away from attempts at constructive engagement with China and more towards a policy of containment and balancing. At the same time, the national security of both nations is threatened by environmental concerns such as overfishing, pollution, and climate change. Environmental issues such as these represent a potential impetus for cooperation between the United States and China, which the United States could leverage to bring about a far more productive and less adversarial relationship. If the United States aims to salvage the policy of constructive engagement, the shared benefits of working together on environmental policy could provide the best avenue to do so. This thesis will utilize the existing literature of two fields, Sino-American relations and environmental policy, in order to evaluate the feasibility of using environmental issues as a jumping off point for further cooperation between the United States and China. This thesis will examine three subject areas, law, trade, and international institutions in the context of joint environmental policy. Each chapter will first examine the state of the current relationship between the United States and China on that policy area from each of their perspectives. Secondly, each chapter will examine the potential for cooperation on environmental issues using law, trade, or institutions respectively. Finally, each chapter will discern how the United States can leverage environmental cooperation in the respective area into cooperation in other areas. This thesis finds a number of common themes for Sino-American relations. Both nations frequently balance against each other in a very traditionally realist sense. The United States works to contain China with diffuse military bases and political ties to Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, while China works to control the South and East China Sea’s, with the hopes of being able to deny the United States access to strategically important areas. China also uses economic leverage to support its interests abroad. Despite the realist perception of great power politics that places the United States and China squarely at odds, both nations are facing massive challenges as a result of climate change. Economic and health damages coupled with national security concerns will extract a costly toll from both nations. As grim a challenge as climate change may seem, these shared dangers are a powerful incentive for America and China to collaborate on policy. It is the conclusion of this thesis that environmental issues are in fact the highest potential avenue of cooperation between the United States and China. The environmental is one of very few areas where America and China have aligned interests. If the United States can instigate cooperation on the environment, be it environmental law, green finance, or environmental institutions such as the Paris Accords, this cooperation can be expanded to encompass other areas. Environmental law can be expanded to include securities or intellectual property law, for instance. Green finance could help to resolve trade disputes and promote free trade between the United States and China, and international institutions could help to make the United Nations or other institutions more effective at resolving disputes between nations by establishing clearer behavioral norms for America and China to follow.