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CONCEPTUAL ANALYSIS article

Front. Polit. Sci.
Sec. Peace and Democracy
Volume 6 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpos.2024.1446054
This article is part of the Research Topic Peace, Democracy and Liberal International Order View all 3 articles

A Pact of Iron? China's Deepening of the Sino-Russian Partnership

Provisionally accepted
Nuno Morgado Nuno Morgado 1*Takashi Hosoda Takashi Hosoda 2
  • 1 Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary
  • 2 Charles University, Prague, Prague, Czechia

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    To characterize the bilateral partnership, this paper applies the neoclassical geopolitics approach. We first measure China’s potential, and the perception of Chinese geopolitical agents, and placed within the international distribution of capabilities. This is followed by our analytical results on Sino-Russian relations in the spheres of potential, strategic culture, and geopolitical design. The paper concludes that while there is a strategic necessity for China to strengthen the partnership, the Sino-Russian relations are unlikely transforming into a traditional military alliance, due to Beijing’s self-interest to maintain trade relations with Western countries, to avoid being tainted by Russia’s deteriorating reputation, to grasp its goal of multipolar world order, and to spread positive narratives of China as a new global leader. The Sino-Russo relations has been shifting its nature from "marriage of convenience" to "marriage who pretend to be a good couple."

    Keywords: Sino-Russian Axis, military cooperation, Geopolitics, power, Geography

    Received: 08 Jun 2024; Accepted: 29 Aug 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Morgado and Hosoda. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Nuno Morgado, Corvinus University of Budapest, Budapest, Hungary

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