Elbridge Colby joins Shadi and Damir to talk about his challenging new book The Strategy of Denial, an unflinchingly clinical argument for confronting China. Does China's authoritarianism make it our enemy, or is confrontation inevitable regardless? Will our allies stick by our side just because China is a bully? And what does Henry Kissinger get wrong about power politics?

Required Reading:

- "Will the Next American War Be with China?" by Benjamin Wallace-Wells (New Yorker).

- Age of Ambition, by Evan Osnos.

- "Diplomacy is a Dirty Business," by Damir Marusic (Wisdom of Crowds).

- Federalist No. 11.