The United States and Contemporary China-Russia Relations / Progress in Mathematics (PDF)

'In this book, distinguished specialists of international politics and China-Russia relations offer multiple theoretical perspectives and rich empirical research on the international and domestic sources of Sino-Russian cooperation and the likely trajectory of relations. The volume's original scholarship explains the dynamics of this critical twenty-first-century relationship and its impact on great power politics and European and Asian security affairs.'

-Robert S. Ross, Professor of Political Science, Boston College, and Associate of the Fairbank Center for Chinese Studies, Harvard University, USA

'A much-needed deep dive into the growing relationship between China and Russia. Top experts leverage theoretical and empirical expertise to explain what is driving Beijing and Moscow together, and why it is important for national security and global stability. A must-read for students, scholars and practitioners alike.'

-Oriana Skylar Mastro, Center Fellow, Freemand Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, USA

China and Russia have grown progressively closer over the last two decades, yielding a China-Russia "axis" uniquely capable of challenging the United States and of revising key aspects of the international order. Although the scholarly literature has offered detailed descriptions and various ad hoc explanations of this trend, the Sino-Russian bilateral relationship has been the subject of very little scrutiny using rigorous theory, which has precluded the formation of logically coherent and empirically supported explanations for increasing China-Russia cooperation. Moreover, the cooperative post-Cold War trend in the bilateral relationship is puzzling for each of the major paradigms of international relations theory: realism, constructivism and liberalism. This volume brings together leading IR scholars from various theoretical perspectives, as well as theoretically-informed experts in Chinese and Russian foreign policy. The chapters develop and apply nuanced theoretical arguments to derive testable hypotheses for the cooperative trend in China-Russia relations. In contrast to existing scholarship, the book offers generalizable insights that both improve our understanding of a crucially important contemporary case, while also advancing IR theory in substantial ways.

Brandon Yoder is Lecturer (Assistant Professor) in the School of Politics and International Relations at the Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.