Concepts
Erickson has pioneered concepts that elucidate the essence of Chinese strategic military-technological developments and their critical dynamics and implications. These include:
- China’s “S-curved” national power trajectory and growth slowdown.
- The “Decade/FYDP of Maximum Danger” now coming to a head under Xi Jinping’s “Centennial Military Building Goal”; with consequent risks for Taiwan, and American/Allied/partner security.
- The Chinese Communist Party’s strategic mental map and disciplined hierarchy of security priorities—building on historical and geographical foundations, with geo-engineered additions.
- Anti-ship ballistic missile (ASBM) development updating the traditional PLA concept of “using the land to control the sea” (以陆制海) with modern “counter-intervention” capabilities.
- The “Little Blue Men” of China’s Maritime Militia—an integral part of China’s armed forces with critical peacetime and wartime roles.
- “Ripples of capability” in China’s military forces, extending in progressively-decreasing levels of intensity from PRC shores—best viewed “through the lens of distance.”
- Explicating and applying the concept of “physics-based limitations” and comparing and contrasting PRC military strategies and capabilities as they apply to the “Near Seas” vs. “Far Seas.”
- The U.S.-Soviet space race as a Cold War microcosm.
- “Climate competition” as the only Archimedes’ lever large enough to compel PRC coal-burning/carbon reductions.
- “Competitive Coexistence” as a proactive American concept for managing U.S.-China relations more assertively and realistically.
