Since the Obama Administration announced its Pivot to Asia policy in 2011, U.S.-China relations have been in a downward spiral. The trade war, the pandemic, growing technology competition, rising tensions in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, and contrasting approaches to the Russia-Ukraine conflict have collectively fed a sense of fatalism that the countries were heading toward the abyss of outright economic decoupling and a disastrous military conflict.
Dr. Joseph Gerson is President of the Campaign for Peace, Disarmament and Common Security, and was a member of the Nihon Hidankyo Nobel Peace Prize delegation in December 2024. He served as Co-chair of the Committee for a Sane U.S.-China Policy, and former Vice-President of the International Peace Bureau, Vice President of the Nobel Peace Prize recipient organization, the International Peace Bureau, and as Director of Programs and Disarmament Coordinator the American Friends Service Committee’s Northeast Region. He was a co-founder of the United for Peace and Justice Coalition. He has often delivered keynote speeches in Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the annual World Conference against Atomic and Hydrogen Bombs.
Dr. Gerson did his undergraduate work at Georgetown University’s School of Foreign Service and received his PhD in politics and international security studies from the Union Institute and College. He has published several books in addition to articles in various publications on international relations.