If the rest of the 21st century will be defined by strategic competition, Professor Hal Brands posits the 2020s will be the most intense and definitive decade. As the US-China rivalry hits fever pitch, China’s aggression toward Taiwan, economic coercion and military escalation will only escalate during this critical period, which Brands and co-author Michael Beckley label the “Danger Zone.” What are their reasons for believing the 2020s will be the most intense decade? What near-term strategy should the United States and allies in the region adopt? What are the implications for US allies like Australia if they get it wrong?
To discuss these issues, the United States Studies Centre hosted an event featuring Professor Hal Brands, author of Danger Zone: The Coming Conflict with China in conversation with USSC's Senior Lecturer in US Politics and Foreign Policy Dr Gorana Grgic.

Professor Hal Brands
Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies
Hal Brands is the Henry A. Kissinger Distinguished Professor of Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) and a scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. He is also a columnist for Bloomberg Opinion.

Dr Gorana Grgic
Senior Lecturer in US Politics and Foreign Policy, United States Studies Centre (jointly appointed with the Department of Government and International Relations, University of Sydney)
Dr Gorana Grgic is a jointly appointed Senior Lecturer at the Department of Government and International Relations and the United States Studies Centre. Her research interests include US politics and foreign policy, transatlantic relations, conflict resolution and democratisation. She is the author of Ethnic Conflict in Asymmetric Federations (Routledge 2017).