Ron Lichtle introduced Dr. Peter Trumbore, Professor at Oakland University since 2002, where he has taught about international relations and international conflict.  His father had been a Rotarian.  He spoke on the topic: Are the US and China Bound for War?  He based his program on Harvard University's Graham Allison's opinion that such a reality has historical precedence.  He then spoke about the Thucydides Trap (a phrase coined by Allison) where a growing power challenges a dominant power and the result most often is armed conflict.  He spoke of Herodotus and the Peloponnesian War as an example of looking to history for context and understanding.  He then shared a comparison between the Cold War experiences of Europe and Asia, where Asia experienced a lot of stability, which gave nations such as China and South Korea opportunities to develop their economies.  He also spoke of the role that the United States has played in maintaining such a geo-political landscape where this has been possible.  In many ways, China has benefitted from the very system developed by the United States.  He then discuss how Allison and his team used 16 cases from over the past 500 years for their research, of which 12 of the 16 war was the result.  The question that is left unanswered, according to him, is the reason for the relatively long peace that the world has enjoyed since 1945, where there has been no conflict between a dominant power and a growing power.  There were two cases that he found relevant for this context:  the US/UK in the early 20th century in regards to the Americas (dominance in our backyard) and the Cold War.  In both cases, war was avoided.  He agrees with Dr. Kenneth Waltz that the reality of nuclear weapons has changed the dynamics, so that winning a war comes a great cost and destruction to both parties.  He believes this reality actually causes nations to be more careful about its militaristic aims, as there is real no winner in such a conflict.  He states that this is the flaw in Allison's theory, because Allison does not fully take nuclear weapons into account.  Following his presentation. Dr. Trumbore then fielded a number of questions.  Thank you, Dr. Trumbore, for an excellent presentation!