This is CBS Eye on the World with John Bachelor. Here's John Bachelor.

This is CBS Eye in the World. I'm John Bachelor. I welcome Elbridge Colby, the author of the

new book, The Strategy of Denial, American Defense, in an age of great power conflict.

Elbridge Colby is co-founder and principal of the Marathon Initiative. He has served as Deputy

Assistant Secretary of Defense for Strategy and Force Development 2017 through 2018.

And we turn to the condition at hand in the world as we know it. The great power competition

involves the players from the 20th century plus China. And Bridges book looks at all of

those possibilities, but focuses on China. So before we come to the examples of China and the

US in conflict in East Asia, we begin with definitions. Bridges, a very good evening to you.

Congratulations, a military strategy for a limited war. What is limited war? And what does

the US now know about its possible opponent, China, in a limited war? Good evening to you.

Good evening, John. It's wonderful to be back on with you. It's a thanks for a pleasure

to be back on and an honor. What is a limited war? A limited war is something that sounds

paradoxical, but is very actually deeply rooted in human nature and certainly military affairs,

which is the idea that even in wars that engage people's deepest emotions and aspirations

and fears, there are almost always incentives to keep a war from spiraling to the very worst

levels of violence. World War II is in most respects a total war, but the vast majority

of other wars in human history have been limited, whether because of the choice of the participants

for some reason or another, because they're pursuing political objectives and they have

other interests in the world, or a lack of capacity. In the context of China, these old

varieties of limited war, but there's also a particularly important one, which is that

both sides have what's called survivable nuclear arsenals, and in addition to nuclear

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