Russia-China relations and the West: grand strategies in a changing international order

invitation only · Seminar Hall Arkadiankatu 23, entrance H (inner courtyard), Helsinki · 22.05.2018 09:00 - 11:00

invitation only

Analysts agree on key features of the Sino-Russian relationship: the growing power asymmetry between the two states; the weak economic foundation, especially when compared to Russia’s and China’s relations with other partners; and the centrality of the US factor in pushing both states towards closer cooperation. However, even though Russia and China seem united in the promotion of a multipolar international order, they play different roles in the global realm and exert varied influence in global institutions. The seminar will place the relationship in a broader context of both states’ foreign policies and their relations with the West, the US in particular. What role does Sino-Russian cooperation hold in the grand strategies of the two parties? What are the implications of closer ties between Moscow and Beijing for the West? Is a fully-fledged alliance what both parties have in mind concerning their partnership?

The seminar is part of a FIIA-led research project, entitled ‘Changing great power politics and its implications to Finland’, which is part of the implementation of the Government Plan for Analysis, Assessment and Research for 2018.

Speakers

Igor Denisov

Senior Research Fellow, Moscow State Institute of international relations

Yang Cheng

Professor of International Relations, Shanghai International Studies University

comments

Mark N. Katz

Professor of Government and Politics, George Mason University