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In a new book, Rise of the Revisionists: Russia, China, and Iran, Gary Schmitt, the codirector of the Marilyn Ware Center for Security Studies at the American Enterprise Institute (AEI) — along with Frederick W. Kagan and Dan Blumenthal of AEI, Reuel Marc Gerecht, a Senior Fellow at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, and Walter Russel Mead, a distinguished fellow at the Hudson Institute — analyze the threats posed by Russia, China, and Iran as they challenge the liberal international order. In the volume’s five chapters, the authors examine the strategic objectives of the three states and, in turn, America’s potential response.
Rise of the Revisionists combines in-depth historical and strategic analysis with recommendations for US policymakers. Among the key points made:
• The security challenges confronting the United States are as complex as any the country has faced since the end of World War II. In the cases of Russia, China, and Iran, the United States is facing challenges in three areas of the world—Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East—that have long been viewed by American strategists as critical to global peace and prosperity.
• Russia will remain hostile to the transatlantic security order, believing NATO and the European Union have taken advantage of past Russian weakness to undermine its great-power status. Russians are resentful of their lost prestige, and Vladimir Putin is determined to use that resentment to resurrect Russia’s role on the world stage and maintain his hold on power at home.
• Due to its imperial mind-set, China has not become a “responsible stakeholder” in the international system. Modern China is the world’s last imperial power, and this largely defines and guides its efforts to revise the balance of power in Asia. China seeks to become East Asia’s hegemon so that it can return to its previous place at the center of the regional order.
• Disorder in the Middle East and the perception of US retrenchment from the region have opened the door for Iran to expand its influence across the greater Near East. While the fervor associated with the 1979 Islamic Revolution has subsided and, with it, Tehran’s claim to leadership in the Muslim world, the clerical regime is now using the great divide between Shi’a and Sunnis to advance and legitimize its regional ambitions both at home and abroad.
• Realists see the competition between the West and Russia, China, and Iran as the inevitable result of tensions between rising powers and the status-quo power of the United States. But a truer realism would recognize that the competition is shaped as much by the underlying character of the regimes as by any other factor and that coming to terms with this reality is key to the United States developing sound and effective counterstrategies.
Advanced reviews of Rise of the Revisionists :
“If the term ‘realism’ hadn’t been hijacked, I’d call this book realistic: sober, penetrating assessments of adversaries, dangers, and the remaining chances to salvage American power.” —Elliot Abrams, former deputy assistant to the president and deputy national security adviser
“The Trump administration’s National Security Strategy confirms . . . the era of uncontested American primacy has given way to a new period of great power competition with regional characteristics. . . . The resulting national security challenges for the United States have no better guide than Rise of the Revisionists.” —Eric Edelman, former under secretary of defense for policy
For interview requests or for a copy of the book, please contact Charlotte Kearney at charlotte.kearney@aei.org or 202.862.5904.
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