Dr. Rapp-Hooper has written extensively on conventional security issues prevailing in the U.S.-China relationship, with particular emphasis on U.S. alliances and Indo-Pacific maritime security. Given her past working relationship with Dr. Kurt Campbell, it can be expected that she will work closely with him in some capacity and holds views similar to his on how to address China, as indicated by their jointly written essay on Foreign Affairs. They both write that the White House will need to “prepare for tough bilateral diplomacy with Beijing on many fronts at once, from Hong Kong to the South China Sea, India, and Europe, where Chinese attempts at pressure and intimidation will likely continue.”

Her most recent research argues in favor of reestablishing U.S. alliances that were shaken, in her perspective, as a result of the Trump administration’s foreign policy. She firmly believes that U.S. alliances will be critical for defending against and deterring China from engaging in strategies that advance its claims in ways just below the military threshold that would trigger U.S. alliance commitments. In a discussion with the National Committee on American Foreign Policy, she says:

Here we can point to issues like China’s maritime assertiveness in the East China Sea or South China Sea, its operations in cyberspace, and increasingly its information campaigns and political interference. All forms of coercion that China prefers to the use of military force because they are cheaper and less risky than the alternatives. If the United States wants to keep this alliance network from unravelling and to make it an effective tool as steadying the balance of power in Asia as China rises, defense and deterrence need to be brought to some of these new areas, [such as]… cyber attacks on critical infrastructure or political interference in domestic processes.