US China Cooperation – Failing States

Meeting the challenges of weak, failing and failed states and transnational threats, including proliferation, terrorism, crime, disease, regional conflict, environmental degradation, etc. Weak and failing states that stand apart from the broad trend toward globalization, and the transnational threats they may incubate as a result of their weaknesses, threaten their own people, their neighbors and the international community.

Dealing with these challenges will require long-term commitments and cooperative measures by the globalizing states, including notably China, to contain the immediate dangers and to move these states into the category of successful states contributing to economic growth and international stability. Moreover, as the South Asian tsunami disaster demonstrated, there is a need for China and the United States to establish a mechanism for crisis management in response to large-scale natural disasters. This project will build on a dialogue with Chinese experts established by the Council in 2004.