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China and Russia in the Hyperborea: The Future of Sino-Russian Relations as Great Power Competition Reaches the High North
Rivalenti, Leonardo
Rivalenti, Leonardo
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Abstract
The present study analyses the development of the interaction between Russia and China in the Arctic Region, focusing on the security dimension, looking under this perspective at the economic, geostrategic and military fields. It will do so in order to understand whether, in spite of the apparent alliance of these two countries, elements of confrontation between them are still present and have the potential to resurface, with the policy implications that they may bring. During the last two decades the factuality of climate change has become consensus among the scientific community and has become an object of increasingly greater attention by policymakers, international organisations, NGOs and civil society. Among the most outspoken consequences of climate change is exactly the melting of the ice cap that covers both the North and South Poles, which however are often analysed mainly from the ecological standpoint. This study offers instead a geopolitical outlook at this process in the Arctic, assessing how are one major Arctic power (Russia) and a non-Arctic power interest in the region (China) responding to it and how their national interests in fields such as economic development and defence are shaped by this product of climate change. This paper will then link the geopolitical dynamics of the Arctic with the global great power competition involving the USA, Russia and China. Focusing then in the interaction between Russia and China in the Arctic and at their dialectic of declining vs. emerging power, this thesis will demonstrate that their alliance is being forced by the US dual containment policy, without which they would likely compete between themselves. From this conclusion, it will then claim that the Arctic could become a region where the US or its allies may start a policy of rapprochement of Russia, which should ultimately aim at the isolation of China and its containment also from the North.
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Thesis (B.A. in International Affairs, Minor in History)--John Cabot University, Spring 2020.
Date
2020
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Diplomatic relations
Citation
Rivalenti, Leonardo. "China and Russia in the Hyperborea: The Future of Sino-Russian Relations as Great Power Competition Reaches the High North". BA Thesis, John Cabot University, Rome, Italy. 2020.