President Trump famously likes to win things.

Elections, TV ratings, court cases.

He deplores losers and recently ordered up a $40 million military parade to encourage Americans to celebrate

historic victories. In his first term, Trump often sought to out-compete this country's

most powerful rivals. But some observers say Trump 2.0 has a different strategy. Rather than trying

to beat China and Russia, his preference would be to collaborate with them in order

to administer the global order. From KERA in Dallas, this is Think. I'm Chris Boyd. It can be

difficult to see this shift, not least because of the president's affinity for tough talk and tariffs.

But my guest sees patterns that look more like collusion than competition, and she cautions that such alliances between competitors don't necessarily erase longstanding ideological differences between nations that can ultimately set them up for conflict.

Stacey E. Goddard is Betty Fryhoff Johnson 44, professor of political science and associate prov Provost at Wellesley College. Her article for

Foreign Affairs is titled The Rise and Fall of Great Power Competition. Stacey, welcome to think.

Thank you so much for having me. What is great power competition exactly? Is it about powerful

countries vying for the top spot, or is it just about rivalry between countries that have comparable power on one or more fronts?

I mean, it can be either, right?

So, for example, we could think about the period of U.S. of Germany, so roughly after the end of the Cold War until 2010, 2015, is a period of great power competition where the United States was largely on top and unmatched in its power.

As power began to shift, as China began to rise, that kind of created what we would call either a bipolar or multipolar world to a world where you have multiple powers, each are trying to exert

influence over the other. And it's all great power competition, but you might expect some

different dynamics depending on how many powers you'd have in the system. For the United States

in the 21st century, what would you say are the rivals that matter most? Well, at least up into the moment, I mean,

clearly the first one is China. Arguably, it's the only power that has the potential to be

what we call a peer competitor in international relations. That is to say, matching the United

States in terms of economic power. It's nowhere near the United States in terms of military power right now,

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