Bobo Lo

"In this work, Bobo Lo examines Russian foreign policy in the decade following the Soviet collapse. He shows how Moscow's approach to international relations arose naturally out of a fractured, disoriented society at odds with itself and the post-Cold War environment. In the absence of consensus over a larger national purpose, the interplay between competing elite interests emerged as the decisive influence shaping foreign policy. The Yeltsin regime, adrift in an unfamiliar world, sought refuge in a virtual 'reality' based on the illusion of Russia's continuing superpower status. However, the rapid pace of developments at home and abroad soon exposed the limitations of such mythmaking. With no one able or willing to articulate a viable alternative vision, Russian foreign policy was reduced to a lowest common denominator conservatism in which institutional anarchy and narrow self-interest paralysed effective decision-making."--BOOK JACKET.

With Western countries consumed by domestic problems, will it be China and Russia that now define the rules of global politics? In a disorderly world, each has become increasingly assertive, and their partnership has emerged from relative obscurity to acquire a new prominence. Yet appearances are deceptive. Beijing and Moscow have shown no capacity to cooperate on grand strategy or establish new international norms. This is no authoritarian alliance, but a partnership of strategic convenience - pragmatic, calculating and constrained.

"Few International Relationships have provoked such polarized views as the "strategic partnership" between China and Russia. Both nations portray it as the very model of positive-sum cooperation, offering the promise of a more equitable world order. But many Western observers see it as an alliance of authoritarian states that threatens the global leadership of the United States and the dismantling of democratic norms. In Axis of Convenience, Bobo Lo shows that the true picture is more complex than such interpretations would suggest." "Axis of Convenience evaluates the current state and future prospects of the Sino-Russian relationship against the back-drop of a disordered global environment."--Jacket.