The emergence of the Soviet Union as a rising superpower led to strong competition with the U.S. and a Cold War marked by dangerously tense episodes at its brink including the Cuban Missile Crisis. Whereas some regard the rise of China as leading to a similar pattern, the outcome is far from inevitable, says Etel Solingen, UCI political science professor. 
 
For the past 2 years, she has collaborated with scholars from the Harvard Kennedy School and the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences to find ways to avoid confrontation by promoting a mutual understanding of the common goals and challenges the two nations face. These include the global financial crisis, international trade, the fate of North Korea's and Iran nuclear programs, global warming, Taiwan, military modernization, and other threats to peace and stability.  
 
The group's findings are detailed in Power and Restraint: A Shared Vision for the U.S.-China Relationship, a new book which was recently presented to the Washington, D.C. scholarly, policy and media community at a special event sponsored by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars. Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Senator John Kerry and Chinese Ambassador to the United States Zhou Wenzhong addressed the event which was co-sponsored by the Harvard Kennedy School, the Kissinger Institute on China and the United States, and the China-US Exchange Foundation.  
 
Solingen's contribution to the project includes a study on how domestic transformations in China, both economic and political, could positively impact its peaceful rise as a great power and avoid potential conflict scenarios that history has shown often accompany rising nations.  
 
An internationally recognized scholar, Solingen is the most recent recipient of the American Political Science Association's 2008 Woodrow Wilson Foundation Award for the best book on government, politics, or international affairs for her book, Nuclear Logics: Contrasting Paths in East Asia and the Middle East. The book was also recognized with the 2008 Robert Jervis and Paul Schroeder Award for the Best Book on International History and Politics, awarded by the section on International History and Politics of the APSA.