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Axis of Convenience

Moscow, Beijing, and the New Geopolitics

ISBN-13: 9780815733195
Publisher: ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD PUBLISHERS
Imprint: BROOKINGS INSTITUTION
By Bobo Lo
Price: AUD $66.99
Stock: 0 in stock
Availability: This book is temporarily out of stock, order will be despatched as soon as fresh stock is received.
Local release date: 15/10/2008
Format: Paperback (229.00mm X 152.00mm) 277 pages Weight: 425g
Categories: International relations [JPS]

Description
Author Biography
Google Preview: Few relationships have been as misunderstood as the ""strategic partnership"" between Russia and China. Official rhetoric portrays it as the very model of international cooperation: Moscow and Beijing claim that ties are closer and warmer than at any time in history. In reality, however, the picture is highly ambiguous. While both sides are committed to multifaceted engagement, cooperation is complicated by historical suspicions, cultural prejudices, geopolitical rivalries, and competing priorities. For Russia, China is at once the focus of a genuine convergence of interests and the greatest long-term threat to its national security. For China, Russia is a key supplier of energy and weapons, but is frequently dismissed as a self-important power whose rhetoric far outstrips its real influence. Axis of Convenience cuts through the mythmaking and examines the Sino-Russian partnership on its own merits. It steers between the overblown interpretation of an anti-Western (particularly, anti-American) alliance and the complacent assumption that past animosities and competing agendas must always divide the two nations. Their relationship reflects a new geopolitics, one that eschews formal alliances in favor of more flexible and opportunistic arrangements. Ultimately, it is an axis of convenience driven by cold-eyed perceptions of the national interest. In evaluating the current state and future prospects of the relationship, Bobo Lo assesses its impact on the evolving strategic environments in Central and East Asia. He also analyzes the global implications of rapprochement between Moscow and Beijing, focusing in particular on the geopolitics of energy and Russia-China-U.S. triangularism.; Bobo Lo is the head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House (Royal Institute of International Affairs) in London and a visiting scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Center. He was previously first secretary and then deputy head of mission at the Australian Embassy in Moscow (1995-99). He is the author of Vladimir Putin and the Evolution of Russian Foreign Policy (Blackwell, 2003) and Russian Foreign Policy in the Post-Soviet Era (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002).; Google Preview content

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Axis of Convenience

Moscow, Beijing, and the New Geopolitics