It seems that the countries of Southeast Asia recognize the mutual benefits of economic integration within a safe security framework. Yet the differences over resource development are spilling over into fears about maritime security. None of the parties has an interest in escalation of anxieties or conflict. They share an interest in negotiated, cooperative solutions.

Northeast Asia, however, poses serious dangers. North Korea, with a failed economy and uncertain leadership, has used threats and nuclear weapons to demand assistance while mobilizing an isolated garrison state. Its international trade in dangerous weapons and illegal activities create havoc elsewhere.

North Korea has rejected the 1953 armistice. It has used military force against South Korea twice in recent years, killing people and risking escalation that could slip out of control. North Korea has threatened preemptive strikes against South Korea and the United States, while endangering Japan and testing nuclear weapons and ballistic missiles that it could use to implement these threats.

China traditionally has believed North Korea offers a security “buffer.” But this is outdated logic. An invasion of China is not conceivable. But conflict precipitated by North Korea is increasingly conceivable, and it certainly wouldn’t be in China’s interest.

When Dai Bingguo, a longtime leading Chinese diplomat, and I had strategic discussions in 2005–2006, I suggested that the United States would be content if North Korea became like China. How, I asked, could China object to that? Moreover, I pointed out that if the Koreas ever united—however the process came about—China would then have an interest in the United States retaining a security alliance with Korea. This alliance would reassure Koreans, who throughout history have seen their peninsula serve as a route for the militaries of much bigger neighbors. If a unified Korea inherited a nuclear weapon, the U.S. alliance with Korea could be instrumental in persuading it to abandon that weapon. A nuclear Korea would leave Japan as the only Northeast Asian country without nuclear weapons, a situation that would worry the Japanese.

Moreover, I told Dai Bingguo that it was my expectation, contrary to Chinese speculation, that a U.S. alliance with a unified Korea would be backed by air and naval assets in the South, not large land forces, and certainly not troops on the Yalu. In contrast, if the U.S. alliance with Korea ended, Japan might eventually be concerned about being the sole Asian host to U.S. bases and forces.

That was years ago. Chinese and U.S. strategists need to be having these discussions about security in Northeast Asia now—to head off dangers today and prepare for a safer tomorrow.

I suspect, for example, that one reason behind China’s reluctance to press North Korea to end its hostile acts and begin reforms is a concern about being able to manage the process of change in North Korea. Perhaps South Korea and the United States—and others in the region—can discuss the possibilities for change with China. While China may wish to avoid considering this prospect, the reality is that a threatening North Korea will prompt responses by others that conflict with China’s preferences for regional security.

Yet all these substantive proposals for a new type of great-power relationship are likely to be stillborn unless China and the United States remove a corrosive that is eating away at our trust and ties: cybersecurity.

Cybersecurity anxieties take different forms, which compound a rising risk of confrontation. One dimension is espionage. A second is commercial espionage, which U.S. and other sources believe is rampant, extremely costly and destructive. A third is sabotage. And a fourth is the question of cyberwarfare—and whether and how we should apply such principles of war as hot pursuit, collateral damage, proportionality and unacceptable damage to conflict in cyberspace.

Decades ago, with the advent of nuclear weapons, security strategists developed doctrines and theories to manage risks of mass destruction. I don’t know whether cybersecurity lends itself to similar discussions. I do know that it is vital that the great powers of the twenty-first century discuss how they might deal with these issues, which could undermine President Xi Jinping’s suggested response to history’s lessons.

There is a debate in the United States about whether China’s concept of “international relations” can ever accept a system based on rules that support an integrative approach. Some—including Henry Kissinger—believe that China’s view of itself as the “Middle Kingdom” only allows for tributary relationships.

Different perspectives among American policy makers and experts may reflect, in part, variations in experiences on economic and security issues. Economic-policy makers observed how Deng Xiaoping employed the international economic system as an enabler of dramatic internal reforms; Zhu Rongji went further, using China’s WTO accession to import international economic rules and relationships. Similarly, China’s economic relations and actions over the past five years of economic crisis have been generally cooperative. In my time at the World Bank Group, I also saw China’s support for—and willingness to adapt to—multilateral development institutions and issues prompted by China’s economic rise.

The experience with security topics raises more doubts, perhaps leading to the difference in perceptions about China’s concepts of international relations in the twenty-first century.

THE IDEA of a new type of great-power relationship does not answer these questions. But it offers us an opportunity to explore various answers.

It is not only China that brings a special historical experience to this task.

The United States, although it is the established power, is not a status quo power. Many international observers are confused by this American quality. Commentators ask why the United States, the world’s most powerful country, doesn’t simply want to preserve the existing order.

One symbol of America’s global engagement is the one-dollar bill. Look at the back of that bill, and you will see a picture of the Great Seal of the United States, in place since the approval of the U.S. Congress in 1782. It includes a Virgilian motto: “Novus ordo seclorum,” or “new order of the ages.” As my professor of diplomatic history pointed out long ago, much of American history is about whether this new order is supposed to be geographically limited to the just-created United States—or broadly applicable.

In addition to security and power—and freedom to trade and dollar diplomacy—American foreign policy has at times sought to promote the principles of the eighteenth-century Enlightenment that were embodied in America’s revolution. Today, those principles are reflected in discussions about human rights and freedoms. But those are also topics that China is debating under such rubrics as good governance, limits on arbitrary governmental action and the rule of law.

The challenge of crafting this new type of great-power relationship is intriguing. It involves much more than a new balance of power. China is a rising power but one guided by many traditional views. The United States is an established power but one comfortable with change. Both the United States and China are highly successful economically and deeply interconnected with many other countries and regions. Their relations will affect many other nations and regions.

My hope is that these ideas and concepts might assist these two powerful and vibrant countries to avoid the Thucydides trap as they explore a new type of great-power relationship. This could be an exciting venture, with much at stake—for China, the United States and the world.

Robert B. Zoellick, former World Bank president, U.S. deputy secretary of state and U.S. trade representative, is currently a distinguished visiting fellow at the Peterson Institute for International Economics and a senior fellow at Harvard University’s Belfer Center. This article is adapted from an address delivered before the Shanghai Forum at Fudan University in Shanghai, on May 25, 2013.

Image: Pullquote: The current dialogue has taken up important topics, but too briefly, too infrequently and with limited engagement at the highest levels, where strategic decisions are likely to be made.Essay Types: Essay