Do Russia or China Have ‘Limited’ or ‘Unlimited’ Political Goals?

By James Holmes 

Riddle me this: does a contender intent on overthrowing the international system harbor “limited” or “unlimited” political goals?

This may sound like an idle exercise in academic hairsplitting. Far from it. In fact, the answer could clarify the stakes in embattled zones like the Black Sea or the South China Sea and suggest how the United States and fellow guardians of the system—a system founded on and inextricable from freedom of the sea—ought to frame policy, strategy, and operations.

The intuitive answer is that Russia and China are pursuing limited aims around their peripheries. They snatch-and-grab bits of territory when opportunity beckons—sometimes uninhabited shoals or atolls in the case of China—or assert outsized claims to sovereignty. They do not attempt large-scale conquest. This is an unduly comforting view. Aggressors want big things even though they’re content to fulfill their goals by increments.............To Read More....