Axis of Convenience: Moscow, Beijing and the New Geopolitics

ISBN: 9780815753407

Издательство: Brookings Institution Press

Организация: Royal Institute of International Affairs

This book provides a fresh analysis of the Sino-Russian relationship, arguing that it reflects a new geopolitics.

This book cuts through the myth-making and examines the Sino-Russian partnership on its own merits. It steers between the overblown interpretation of an anti-Western (particularly, anti-US) 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 favour of more flexible and opportunistic arrangements. Ultimately, it is an axis of convenience driven by cold-eyed perceptions of the national interest.

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 favour of more flexible and opportunistic arrangements. Ultimately, it is an axis of convenience driven by cold-eyed perceptions of the national interest.

Praise:

'The best book I have read on this critical relationship. Bobo Lo has produced a thoroughly researched, elegantly written, and persuasively argued study.' - Alex Pravda, Fellow of the Russian and East European Centre, St Antony's College, Oxford University.

'In this brilliant book, Bobo Lo offers an insightful and stimulating analysis of one of the most important relationships in international politics today.' - Volker Stranzel, Political Director of the German Foreign Ministry and formerly Germany's Ambassador to the People's Republic of China.

'One simply cannot afford to miss Axis of Convenience, probably the best book written about the contemporary Sino-Russian relationship.' - Dmitri Trenin, Deputy Director and Senior Associate of the Carnegie Moscow Center.