355?

I have a column at the Diplomat on the 355 ship navy…

Motivation is a problem for peacetime naval buildups, especially in democracies. In the case of the United Stdates, while the strategic class has determined that the People’s Liberation Army Navy (PLAN) represents a core threat to U.S. interests, the commercial class and the population at large have yet to come to the same conclusion. Generally speaking, almost no one outside of military and strategic circles in the United States thinks about the relationship between the United States and China as zero-sum. U.S. and Chinese companies continue to invest in one another; U.S. students study in China and vice versa. Even the Trump administration, which has described trade relations in zero-sum terms, has in practice treated negotiations with China as a game in which both countries can benefit.