The US military is touted as the largest; the most experienced and technological advanced force in the world. Having a strong military enables a country to enforce its economic and political policies while also protecting its strategic interests using hard power to deter its enemies. For decades, the US armed forces have been the democratic machine upon which the country exerts and spreads its interests and ideas to the rest of the world. However, in recent years, a growing threat is emerging that is proving to be far more dangerous than the cold war propaganda that made American citizens wary of Russia. The threat is from China, the world fastest growing economy (Rinehart, 2016). To understand the scope of the threat posed by China, the researcher will utilize the military theory of war. Through this theory, the study will examine how wars generate conflict and the role of the military in enforcing key strategic interests of a nation (Commonwealth of Australia, 2018). The country is modernizing its navy and currently has more ships in its fleet than the US to advance its own strategic interests in the South China Sea (Tayloe, 2017). According to Rinehart (2016), the nation has been increasing its military budget an average of 9.5% from 2005 to 2014. With a budget of $146 billion in 2016, China was spending more on its budget than any other country except the US (Rinehart, 2016).China continues to build its military strength both in numbers, skills, and capabilities with the aim of asserting its global dominance (Brands, 2018). The country’s aggressive activities in the South China Sea and presence in Africa is threatening peace and security of the world (Brands, 2018).
The economic rise of China has strongly been followed by expansion of its military, showing a strong correlation between the two. In Africa, the country is investing heavily in infrastructure, energy, oil and gas and even mining (Pant and Haidar, 2017). Therefore, the construction of a military base in Djibouti, Africa to protect its economic interests on the continent is a plot to exert dominant and reduce the US influence (Pant and Haidar, 2017). Just like organizations, militaries go through changes, deal with uncertainty and suffer from the ineffective performance that can explain the need for expansion. Through organization theory, the study will explain the concept of military power and how size, weaponry, and tactics are expansion tools aimed at threatening the enemy. The fact that the US has strategic interests all over the world is undeniable. However, the US in recent years has neglected and enforced a weak foreign policy in East Asia, that China has been keen to exploit with a show of military strength (Kim, 2018).Also, it demonstrates a lack of foresight to neglect the fact that the military expansion of China presents economic implications for the US in the global stage (Kim, 2018). Since President Trump took office, China has been largely mentioned as a rising threat to US national security both at home and abroad (Babones, 2017). However, there some officials both civilian and military in the current and former administrations who believe that the threat of China in regards to its armed forces expansion is non-existence (Babones, 2017). This is demonstrated by a lack of official US military doctrine and policy specifically for China. In this regard, the dissertation seeks to prove beyond reasonable doubt that military expansion from the People’s Republic of China is a threat to the US.
Chapter Outlines
Introduction and Chapter 1
The first chapter of the forthcoming dissertation will explore theoretical framework, particularly the theory of securitisation to shed light on whether China’s military expansion is a threat to the US security or not (Bamidele, 2013). Crucially, complete reconfiguration and transformations of the security systems have created a significant impact on international relations among countries. As a result, there have been an emergence of entirely new global security challenges, threats, and risks (Bamidele, 2013). These changes have intensified debates on redefining concepts of security and developing common policies to foster peace and healthy relations among states. Enormous and innovative contributions have been made by scholars to contemporary security issues (Bamidele, 2013). Of these studies, it was agreed that security dynamics cannot be reduced only to the military-political relations of specific countries such as the US and Russia. In an effort to give an appropriate answer to this question, securitisation theory will be used to give a view on whether current China's military expansion is posing an existential threat to the US.
Notably, the current trends in China’s modernisation strategic forces such as land and sea based-denial capabilities, nuclear capacity, and precision strike weapons has the potential to negatively affect US-China relations (Nikiforova, 2017). In light of this, it is evident that the US is unsure of China’s intentions, which will be explained using military and agenda setting theory. First, the military theory will help in understanding the phenomenon of war and its correlation with conflicts (Nikiforova, 2017). Secondly, the model will offer the opportunity to test the effectiveness of the modern military transformations and its impacts on the security and political relations between China and the US (Nikiforova, 2017). Finally, agenda setting theory will help to make predictions of the possible outcome associated with China’s military expansion (Kim, Kim and Zhou, 2017). Such projections will indeed serve as the basis for formulating accurate and appropriate opinion about China’s military expansion.
Chapter 2
The aim of this second chapter is to apply the relevant theoretical framework to the military issues in different nations which is helpful in answering the primary research question that involves whether China’s military expansion is a threat to the US. Through application three theories that include military, securitization and agenda-setting theory, there will be an interrogation of criticisms and ambiguities surrounding the approaches to determining if they actually apply in practice. The section will critique the theories from the leans of China's military expansion as a threat to the U.S. Threat can be viewed as a function of both intention and capability and research should be conducted to determine the state of China’s military expansion (Mearsheimer, 2010). The assessment of China’s military power by the Defense Department indicates that there is military rival among the two nations. However, some experts have argued that the Pentagon is only hyping the China threat to justify its overspending new defence and weapons systems because China does not intend to challenge U.S. military dominance in Asia and other parts across the world (Tayloe, 2017). Basing on this argument, the chapter will give a more profound understanding of the scope of the military threat presented by China as its modernization of the armed forces is proceeding faster than many analysts expected. There are still some unanswered questions that will be addressed in the dissertation that are detailed below: How Real Is the Chinese threat to the United States? Does China seek to increase its dominance in the Asian militarily and is the U.S. worried about this initiative? Is it true that the Pentagon is justifying the military procurement by accusing China’s military expansion as the country?
Due to the rapid expansion of China, it has demonstrated its capability to reach certain U.S. and allied military targets in the Pacific Ocean (Sonmez, 2013). However, this situation that does not necessarily mean that China is intending to attack the targets. Furthermore, China does not have global conventional military power projection capabilities that will have direct threats of attack or invasion of the U.S. homeland. Hence, the need to answer the question: Are the United States and China encouraging an arms race? Even though the Chinese leadership views the military expenditure as a strategic initiative for ascending into great power status, there are still uncertainties that undermine the contention that the rise will be peaceful (Rinehart, 2016). However, the situation does not imply that the national security in the U.S. is imperilled. Nevertheless, the expanded overwater bomber capabilities of China have not expanded into the United States' homeland. The military developments bear watching but they do not imply they are military threats to national security (De Graaff & Van Apeldoorn, 2018). Therefore, by applying the theory of securitization, it is clear that as a pioneer in the field of military, the U.S. is not willing to sell sophisticated armed drones to other nations except to a limited number. There are not constraints faced by China when it comes to displaying impressive unmanned aerial vehicles and a broad range munitions carried at arms shows worldwide.
Chapter 3
The final chapter will specifically explore how China’s military expansion will serve as a threat to the US. In order to achieve this objective, the dissertation will evaluate various policies developed by China towards improving the effectiveness of its military. Essentially, it is projected that China will have approximately 550 warships by 2030, which will be double the present US navy. Further, China has claimed the South of China Sea, where other countries had interests (Dorell, 2018). Despite the US utilisation of best military technology, China has been reducing the gap through expanding its activities and equipping the military with critical resources. For instance, the quality of China’s warships is a credible source of threat to the US (Pena, 2018). In regards to space, China has ground-based laser missiles and weapons and is currently developing space-based systems, which will be used to neutralise energy satellites used by enemies such as the US and its allies (Dorell, 2018). Importantly, various studies have explored the current practices that are being undertaken by China to expand its military and enhance the capability to match the superpowers (Pena, 2018). Nevertheless, these actions have both direct and indirect impacts on global security as well as political impacts on the US (Pena, 2018). Therefore, this chapter will explicitly explore different activities pursued by China’s military and how such actions will affect the interests of the US.
Methodology
The research will employ a methodology that will help achieve its general objectives through the principles and the critical analyses. Various research materials will be utilized in the study that contains information on the relationship between the military growth in China and its impacts on the United States. They include the academic journals, books, and articles from trusted sources. All the materials must be in line with the topic and within the theoretical framework. The materials will fall under three main areas that will first include the military theory, whereby the focus will be to establish key content on the operation of the military and the related factors. The second category of the materials will contain the information on securitization theory in its usage and application to the context. Additionally, the materials on the agenda-setting will be reviewed concerning the topic.
The research will utilize the disclose analysis approach as the main method of handling the securitization theory of China's military expansion threat to the US. In the approach, a variety of videos about the US military leaders will be reviewed and analyzed to support the research especially in predicting the study. The videos are available in different sources exposing the US military leadership view on the impacts that China’s military growth has over the Americans. Usually, predicting is an important research factor that helps to affirm or expose key aspects in the research (Pathak et al., 2017). Thus, the use of predicting will provide proof of the existing effects and their level, hence important in the study (Zhou et al., 2017). Therefore, from the videos, various expressions to expose the state of the military expansions and impacts that they have on the US.
In the exploration, the language practices within the videos will be reviewed for effective results. Mostly, the key language factors that expose information on the study include the use of the adverbs, adjectives, the stress in sentences and the intonation among many others (Tripp and Rich, 2012). Besides, the disclosed analysis will provide supportive information to the study through the affirmation of the existence of the impacts of the topic. Additionally, the framing factors will help access the impacts of the case (Joseph and Brennan, 2013). The ability to understand the framing of the words, phrases, ideas is likely to expose the impact of China's military growth to the US. Therefore, framing is an important tool that will be utilized for better results (Blikstad-Balas, 2017). Additionally, the statistical data relating to the aspects that will emanate from videos will be used to reveal more information. Additionally, the acceptability of the content in the videos will be analyzed to expose the reliability and trueness of the information.
References
Babones, S. 2017. Does China really pose a threat to the US national security? Forbes. [Online]. Available at https://www.forbes.com/sites/salvatorebabones/2017/12/19/does-china-really-pose-a-threat-to-us-national-security/#55ebaff375e4 [Accessed: 7th December 2018]
Bamidele, O., 2013. Book Review: Security and the Environment: Securitisation Theory and US Environmental Security Policy by Rita Floyd. Theory in Action, 6(1), pp.138-142.
Blikstad-Balas, M. 2017. Key challenges of using video when investigating social practices in education: Contextualization, magnification, and representation. International Journal of Research & Method in Education, 40(5), 511-523.
Brands, H. 2018. China’s master plan: A global military threat. Bloomberg [Online]. Available at https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-06-10/china-s-master-plan-a-global-military-threat [Accessed: 7th December 2018]
Commonwealth of Australia. 2018. Understanding wars theory: What military theory is, where it fits, and who influences it? Available at https://www.army.gov.au/sites/default/files/publications/understanding_wars_theory.pdf [Accessed: 7th December 2018]
De Graaff, N. & Van Apeldoorn, B. (2018). US-China relations and the liberal world order: contending elites, colliding visions? International Affairs, 94: 1, 113–131.
Dorell, O., 2018. How China’s Military Expansion Threatens US Interests. [Online]Available at:< https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2018/05/18/how-chinas-military-expansion-threatens-u-s-interests/621385002/> [Accessed on 12 Dec 2018].
Joseph, G.E. and Brennan, C., 2013. Framing quality: annotated video-based portfolios of classroom practice by pre-service teachers. Early Childhood Education Journal, 41(6), pp.423-430.
Kim, P.M. 2017. Understanding China’s military expansion and implications for US policy. Council on Foreign Relations. [Online]. Available at https://www.cfr.org/report/understanding-chinas-military-expansion-and-implications-us-policy [Accessed: 7th December 2018]
Kim, Y., Kim, Y. and Zhou, S., 2017. Theoretical and methodological trends of agenda-setting theory. The Agenda-Setting Journal,
1(1), pp.5-22.
Mearsheimer, J.J. (2010). The Gathering Storm: China’s Challenge to US Power in Asia. The Chinese Journal of International Politics, 3:381–396.
Nikiforova, O., 2017. Military-Political Translation in the Context of the Theory of Military Translation. European Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences, pp.28-31.
Pant, H.V., & Haidar, A.M. 2017. China’s expanding military footprint in Africa. [Online]. Available at https://www.orfonline.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/ORF_Issue_Brief_195_China_Military_Africa.pdf [Accessed: 7th December 2018]
Pathak, D., Girshick, R.B., Dollár, P., Darrell, T. and Hariharan, B., 2017, July. Learning Features by Watching Objects Move. In CVPR (Vol. 1, No. 2, p. 7).
Pena, V. C., 2018. How Real is the Chinese Threat to the United States? [Online] Available at: [Accessed on 12 Dec 2018]
Rinehart, I.E. (2016).The Chinese Military: Overview and Issues for Congress. Congressional Research Service.
Rinehart, I.E. 2016. The chines military: Overview and issues for Congress. Congressional Research Service. Available at https://fas.org/sgp/crs/row/R44196.pdf [Accessed: 7th December 2018]
Sonmez, A.H. (2013). Economic growth and military spending in China: Implications for international security. International Journal of Political Economy, 42(2), 88–100.
Tayloe, S. C. (2017). Crossover Point: How China’s Naval Modernization Could Reverse the United States’ Strategic Advantage. Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs, 4(1), 1–25.
Tayloe, S.C.2017. Crossover Point: How China’s Naval Modernization Could Reverse the United States’ Strategic Advantage. Journal of Asian Security and International Affairs 4(1) 1–25. DOI: 10.1177/2347797016689217
Tripp, T. R., and Rich, P. J. 2012. The influence of video analysis on the process of teacher change. Teaching and teacher education, 28(5), 728-739.
Zhou, T., Brown, M., Snavely, N., and Lowe, D.G., 2017, July. Unsupervised learning of depth and ego-motion from the video. In CVPR (Vol. 2, No. 6, p. 7).
