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17 january 2019
U.S. Indo-Pacific Strategy
The U.S.-China relationship and the economic and security dynamics of the Indo-Pacific are riddled with contradictions that raise questions about both the Chinese and American policies. How this drama plays out will have no small impact on a global and regional system in transition looking out to 2025.
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20 september 2018
Russia-Japan -- peace can wait
Putin has snubbed Abe as he boosts links with China amid growing US hostility to Beijing and Moscow.
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27 december 2017
Irredentism and the Crisis of National Identity
Irredentism may cause all the risks stemming from the strong identity of a great power and its imperial heritage, which fuels the temptation to regard the modern borders as “casually drawn” and “unfair,” to get mixed with nationalism. This is a very dangerous cocktail.
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11 december 2017
How Trump’s Decision on Jerusalem Can Give Momentum to Palestinian Statehood
The Palestinian response to Donald Trump’s move might take one of two shapes: to give him a chance to develop the “ultimate deal” and present it to the parties in the coming months or to transform the hit into an opportunity to get their right of self-determination in their independent state.
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28 november 2017
Looking into the Future: Russia and Asia in the Next 20 Years
The Asian center of economic growth will move to the south, and the developed countries will try to adapt foreign labor migration to the needs of high-tech production.
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8 november 2017
Law, Power and the Power of Precedent in International Relations
Current discussions, including the recent annual session of the Valdai Club in Sochi and its aftermath, have drawn attention to international law and particularly to two crucial questions: can international law be effective in the absence of a balance of power, and what is the role of precedent in that domain? Here are some reflections on these matters.
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6 october 2017
The Arctic In An Age Of Geopolitical Change: Assessment And Recommendations
Arctic remains one of the world’s last great, pristine and undeveloped areas. Equivalent to one-sixth of the world’s landmass, the region is home to just 4 million people. The region is rich in both renewable and non-renewable resources.
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29 september 2017
China and Central Asia: Post-Soviet Developments
Central Asian attitudes to China are vastly different from how China is perceived in Europe, the rest of Asia and other parts of the world. Politicians, businessmen and ordinary people in Central Asia are either baffled or inspired by the geographical proximity of their huge neighbor.
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17 may 2017
Russia–Japan Political Dialogue at the Highest Level: Opportunities and Perspectives
The asymmetry of the views and interests of the two sides with respect to a dialogue at the highest level significantly limits both the opportunities and the visible effects of that dialogue. As we move deeper into the drawn-out Russia–Japan dialogue, expectations as to what can actually be achieved have inevitably dwindled.
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18 april 2017
Defense Through Leadership: Turkey on the Eve of Its Constitutional Referendum
The April 16 referendum will focus on power distribution rather than institution building. In other words, the organizers saw it as an opportunity to expand the President’s powers and allow him to rule longer. In their turn, Turks perceived it as an institutional choice to contribute to the development of the state.
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20 october 2016
Are China and Russia Partnering to Create an Axis?
After experiencing many ups and downs in their relationship, China and Russia have forged a strategic partnership since the advent of the 21st century. While Russia's relations with the United States and the European Union have hit a rough patch, its ties with China are on an upward trend.
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12 october 2016
Power-Sharing in Europe: Models for the Ukraine?
Some form of power-sharing arrangement could pave the way to reconciling the conflict in the Ukraine and in relations between the EU and Russia is a valid one.
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25 september 2016
Interconnecting Strategies
It seems Washington wants to provoke China into muscle-flexing. If Beijing shows restraint and cold calculation in response, this may have a restrictive, if not sobering, effect on Washington. Russia is interested in preventing the South China Sea from becoming a proving ground for testing the strength of one’s nerves.
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9 september 2016
Big 20 to Big Game: Power Politics Are Returning, Which Suits Russia
The G20 meeting in China was a milestone in international relations. Until only recently, world leaders were certain that the global economy and increased connectivity had helped stabilize and define the new world order. Now, however, the pendulum has turned back towards a classic game between the great powers, and Russia is again feeling right in its element.
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17 june 2016
Russia’s Role in Asia-Pacific Security Architecture
If there is a key lesson to be drawn from the history of international relations, it is that, in extremis, political and security considerations almost inevitably triumph over economic considerations. Nothing is less certain.
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15 april 2013
“Look Not a Gift Tank in the Muzzle”
Yerevan would have shown greater interest in the problems of security in Central Asia if it were certain that its Central Asian allies would take symmetrical and proportionate actions in the Karabakh conflict.
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15 february 2013
Georgia as Russia’s Future Asset
(1)Normalizing relations with Georgia is simple for Russia, which only has to ease entry and import restrictions and to show that it is open to cooperation.
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27 december 2012
The Belavezha Accords Legacy
Post-Soviet Russia largely emerged as a separatist project, although it had not used this kind of rhetoric for its legitimization. Separatism was, in fact, embedded in the foundation of the post-Soviet Russian statehood.
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20 september 2012
China-Japan Tensions – Who Stands to Gain?
The Asia-Pacific Region’s growing global economic and political importance was a clear priority for all those attending APEC 2012 in Vladivostok.
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23 august 2012
Can European Experience Solve Asian Problems?
When Dmitry Medvedev visited the Kuril Islands, first as president and then as prime minister, international commentators denounced Russia for its tactless conduct and imperial ambitions, as Japan considers these islands its Northern Territories.
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5 july 2012
Why Did Medvedev Go to the Kurils Again?
Dmitry Medvedev has visited the Kuril Islands again, this time as prime minister.
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22 february 2011
Can we achieve stability without going to war?
If we look at the issue of the Russian-Japanese territorial disput through the prism of global processes, this conflict may also tell us something about the world at large.
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10 february 2011
Russian-Japanese territorial dispute flares up
Our relations are probably at their lowest point since the fall of the Soviet Union.
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25 december 2010
Arctic Square of Opportunities
The treaty concerning maritime delimitation in the Barents Sea and the Arctic Ocean, which Russia and Norway signed in September 2010, is regarded by the officialdom as a great diplomatic success. However, the document disregards a whole range of vital legal aspects, which may be detrimental to the operation of Russian state companies in the region, including possible weighty losses due to discrepancies in tax treatment.
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12 november 2010
The disputed Kuril Islands and Russia’s broader Asian strategy
Japanese Ambassador Masaharu Kono, recalled to Tokyo for consultations after President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to one of the disputed Kuril Islands, has returned to Moscow. Some people still wonder what really is behind this diplomatic spat.
A new world order: A view from Russia
Since around 2017–2018, the world has been living through a period of progressive erosion, or collapse, of international orders inherited from the past. With the election of Donald Trump and the rapid increase of US containment of Russia and China—which is both a consequence of this gradual erosion and also represents deep internal and international contradictions—this process entered its apogee.
Will US pullout from Syria increase risk of conflict with Russia?
The announcement of the US pullout from Syria was received with caution in Moscow. Besides the security and political challenges it may bring about, the Trump decision could mean the end of a practical, relatively constructive US-Russian approach to conflict at flashpoints.
What is the ‘New Era’ of the Sino-Russian Relationship?
For a long time, Western commentators did not take the close relationship between Russia and China seriously, because conventional wisdom held that the foundation of this link is fragile. Russia has its “Eurasian complex,” which is considered ephemeral and opportunistic, whereas in China there has been a strong distrust of Russia since the 1949 Communist revolution, as typified by the Mao-Stalin alienation. Today, such analytical logic can no longer hold water.
Is There Life After Arms Control Death?
For several years, serious experts in Russia and the West have repeatedly warned the public about the threat of the collapse of the international nuclear arms control system. They spoke about the system, to be precise, because in the past half a century arms control developed as a sum-total of supplementary elements rather than an eclectic set of separate unrelated bilateral or multilateral agreements.
The INF Treaty: Mirror or Abyss?
The number of nuclear weapon states, their respective arsenals, and transatlantic nuclear arrangements make Europe one of the most “nuclearized” continents. Luckily, even when the total warhead numbers were even higher, nuclear use had been avoided – although the threat remains real.
Common Dreams or Vulgar Delusions? Elite Preoccupations in Discourses about the ‘Commons’
Our age is witness to a proliferation of discourses about the ‘commons’. They are emerging from more and more quarters, and the word is being applied to more things than ever before. One important strand of discourse, claiming to be communist, seeks to apply it to all kinds of spheres, from the earth and its natural bounty to culture, and to all sorts of resources, from the most immaterial, such as common knowledge, to the most material, such as the use of the earth’s finite natural resources. Internet activists refer to information and knowledge that exits on the web as the ‘digital commons’.
Globalization: New Pathways Along the South–South Axis
The year 2018 was marked by escalation in trade tensions among the world’s largest economies, mostly via bilateral trade restrictions.