As the United States and China accelerate their rivalry over artificial intelligence, observers of history recognize the shape of this moment — two great powers competing for dominance over a technology neither fully understands, without the guardrails that once kept an earlier rivalry from becoming catastrophe. During the Cold War, the specter of mutual destruction compelled Washington and Moscow to build channels of communication and negotiation; today, no comparable architecture exists between Washington and Beijing. The absence of bilateral AI agreements, shared red lines, or crisis protoc