While U.S. China relations regarding cyber security have improved over recent years, there are still large areas of distrust and room for improved communication. Namely, there are critical points regarding the 2015 agreement that are still evolving in the 2015 cyber attack agreement between the U.S. and China. Although cyber attacks have not decreased, promising diplomatic initiatives and areas of discussion have been opened.

As demands of 9/11 victim families get traction and America’s for imported energy declines, U.S. foreign policy is being dominated by “inward-looking election-year motivation”. If that continues into next year, no matter who is president, U.S. anti-terror strategy is unlikely to continue to enjoy full support from Saudi Arabia. With traditional allies like Saudi Arabia and Israel beginning to engage Russia in private, the U.S. could lose its dominant position in Middle East affairs.

The confrontation regarding plans for the THAAD system might lead to unbearable consequences if the situation gets worse. The only reasonable course for Washington and Seoul is to abandon the deployment.

The anticipated defeat of the Islamic State is not likely to mean calm in the region, since thousands of disaffected jihadist fighters will be scattered and looking for new opportunities to spread their ideology. Meanwhile, the newly energized Kurds – key players in the war against IS – will have political demands that will be difficult to satisfy, and may lead to new conflicts.

The PLA should not only collaborate in US-led exercises to get familiar with American weapon systems and the tactics they employ, the Chinese should embrace the model and initiate joint exercises of its own. That would demonstrate its readiness both to face foreign intervention and to preserve regional security and stability as it assume mores global responsibilities.

Countries such as China, Iran, Russia, and the United States are heavily investing in their cyberwar capabilities and are accumulating not just single cyber weapons but entire cyber weapon arsenals for use in wartime. Small and medium powers will need to start a public debate about how to tackle the growing threats from cyberspace sooner rather than later.

China’s alleged militarization of the South China Sea isn’t supported by the facts, and the US definition of ‘militarization’ defies both common sense and international practice.

In 1985, historian Walter McDougall wrote a Pulitzer Prize winning history of the Space Race. Therein, he argued that the space race wasn’t simply a competition between two nations to get into space, but rather a competition between two different systems and worldviews. The U.S. and China may be experiencing a similar phenomenon in cyberspace today.

The joint operations provide Chinese forces valuable opportunities to test their skills and tactics. But if the West is really concerned with China and Russia’s intentions behind these drills, it needs some soul-searching to ask what “common threats’ have driven the two countries to get closer faster than anticipated.

In the face of risks and disagreements, the two sides should restart negotiations, and sincerely embark on the road of resolving both the unsettled state of war from the 1950s and the current stalemate over the THAAD deployment in South Korea.