Can the U.S. and China Build a Stable Great-Power Relationship?

Event details Date: Thursday, August 6, 2026 Time: 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM Location: Duane J. Roth Auditorium at Sanford Consortium for Regenerative Medicine - Duane J. Roth Auditorium - 2880 Torrey Pines Scenic Drive, La Jolla, California - 92037 Type: Lecture / Workshop Audience: Staff and Faculty, Alumni, Parents and Family, Students, Undergraduate, Graduate and Professional Cost: Free About this event In welcoming U.S. President Donald Trump to Beijing in May for a summit, Chinese President Xi Jinping sought to find an answer to the question of whether China and the U.S. would be able to overcome the Thucydides Trap and create a new paradigm of major country relations. After two days of intense conversation, the two leaders offered a tentative “yes,” proposing to create a new era of what they called “constructive strategic stability.” Following in the tradition of Susan Shirk, who insists on asking difficult questions and challenging conventional wisdom, the political scientist Graham Allison will devote this lecture to examining both the promise and the limits of that vision. 4:15 - 5:00 PM — Reception on the Terrace5:00 - 6:30 PM — Public Lecture in Roth Auditorium Presider: Meghan O’Sullivan, Director, The Belfer Center; Jeane Kirkpatrick Professor of the Practice of International Affairs, Harvard Kennedy School Speaker: Graham Allison, Douglas Dillon Professor of Government, Harvard Kennedy School ___________________________________ This public lecture is organized by the 21st Century China Center (21CCC) at the UC San Diego School of Global Policy and Strategy. For more information about this and other 21CCC events, please visit china.ucsd.edu. Official event details: https://calendar.ucsd.edu/event/can-the-us-and-china-build-a-stable-great-power-relationship