Social sciences and international relations experts at Hiroshima University in Japan have proposed a new framework for studying the immensely complex power dynamics between China and the U.S., and its allies bordering the Pacific Ocean—"hybrid balancing." The concept evolved out of "hybrid warfare," which was an outgrowth of the Cold War between the U.S. and the former Soviet Union, when war became more about public perception, trust in governments, and economic leverage than bullets and tanks.