Introduction: Power, politics and confrontation in Eurasia

© Roger E. Kanet and Matthew Sussex 2015.The central objective of this edited volume is to help unlock a set of intriguing puzzles relating to changing power dynamics in Eurasia, a region that is critically important in the changing international security landscape

Power, politics and confrontation in Eurasia: Foreign policy in a contested region

The editors wish to thank the authors of the chapters that comprise this volume for their central role in the project, for the quality of their analyses, and their positive responses to suggestions for revision and updating to strengthen the quality of their contributions. The idea for this volume and a companion volume to be entitled Russia, Eurasia and the New Geopolitics of Energy: Confrontation and Consolidation, emerged along with preparations for an ISA- (International Studies Association) supported daylong workshop entitled ‘Actors, Processes and Architecture in the Contemporary Eurasian Order: Political, Economic and Security Challenges’, organized by Matthew Sussex and held immediately prior to the annual ISA meetings in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, on Tuesday, 25 March 2014. Most of the contributors to this and the companion volume were able to share their views and comment on one another’s papers at that workshop, thereby helping to sharpen the focus of the chapters and the collection. They wish to express their special appreciation to the International Studies Association for the funding that made this workshop a reality

Europe, the United States and the Islamic World: Conceptualising a triangular relationship

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Russia and China in global governance

Scholars studying Sino-Russian relations point at the informal division of labour between Russia and China in global governance. Russia remains active in international security governance, whereas China has increased the level of its participation in areas of economic, financial and environmental governance. These differences are ascribed to the different potential of both states as well as their related varied scope of interests in a well-functioning global governance system. However, this division of labour has evolved for the past couple of years. Beijing increased its engagement with international security governance, while Moscow lost some of its (already limited) interest in such areas as environmental or economic governance. This chapter aims at exploring this shift and its implications. Rather than analysing Sino-Russian relations in distinct areas of global governance, it proposes a different approach and identifies three patterns of interactions between the two countries: direct cooperation, parallel activities and contradictory/divergent activities