A Harvard scholar says the Chinese leader sees rivalry with Washington as a path to catastrophic war unless both sides rethink their ties.

New studies of the centuries-old Confucian order in East Asia show the country is, more than ever, committed to stability and peace.

“It was the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable.” Two thousand five hundred years on, the trap is being set again — and this time…