Could a few tiny islets in the East China Sea help light the fire that sparks a wider conflagration in East Asia? What about preventive strikes on North Korean nuclear and missile sites? A collision near one of Beijing's man-made islands in the South China Sea?
An influential Harvard scholar who literally wrote the book on the chances of a U.S. war with China believes these are all possibilities — and ones that would also pull in Japan.
Graham Allison, a professor at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government and the author of "Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap?", sat down with The Japan Times for a wide-ranging interview in Tokyo earlier this month to discuss the role the disputed Senkaku Islands and North Korean nukes could play in triggering a Sino-U.S. conflict, and how such an event would affect Japan.