How to avoid a great power war over small stakes

In the East China sea, in waters bounded by Japan, China, and Taiwan, lies a small archipelago of uninhabited islands known in Japan as the Senkaku Islands, and in China as Diaoyu Islands. Both countries claim them, but they are covered by the US-Japan security treaty. What would be the U.S. response if China landed military forces on them? Similarly, what would happen if “little green men” from Russia occupied a Russian-speaking village in Estonia, a NATO member country? In his new book, "," Brookings Senior Fellow explores these and similar scenarios in which a local crisis could erupt into a major war between the United States and China or Russia. In this episode, Brookings Fellow talks with O’Hanlon about his book and his argument for a better range of options to deal with these risks. Also on the program, , a fellow in the Metropolitan Policy Program, shares her recent research on unemployed youth. While the current national unemployment rate is below four percent, joblessness among American workers aged 18 to 24 in mid to large cities is much higher at about 17 percent. Subscribe to Brookings podcasts  or on , send feedback email to , and follow us and tweet us at  on Twitter. The Brookings Cafeteria is part of the .