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Eimear O'Casey:

Bobo Lo's "Axis of Convenience" examines the relationship between Russia and China and offers a fresh and grounded perspective on a much misunderstood partnership.

Lo is a seasoned expert in Russia and China. As the Head of the Centre for European Reform's Russia and China programs and previously a Visiting Scholar at the Carnegie Moscow Centre, he is well placed to respond to the spate of anxiety which the Sino-Russian partnership has provoked among Western observers. The two countries have found favor in one another over recent years, working together over Iran, North Korea and nuclear defense, and providing a stark contrast to decades, if not centuries, of hostility.

This is an immensely timely publication which has important implications for how we understand the power struggles currently taking place on the global stage. The book confidently pulls the reins in on raging rhetoric of new world orders and the decline of the US. Lo considers "multipolarity" to be a long way off, and depicts the Chinese-Russian partnership as both limited and entirely non-ideological. As such, it offers a sobering analysis of the impact of this relationship on the West.

Whilst Lo acknowledges the important change which the Iraq War has had on the perception of the US globally, he considers the "new geopolitics" to be based on fluid, non-committal relationships in the context of which the US remains the clear global leader. Among the most important points that the author puts forward is that the Sino-Russian partnership is quite firmly of secondary importance to each country's interaction with their respective Western neighbors: Russia with the EU, China with the US. China, says Lo, would choose the US over Russia if pushed. Whilst such an assertion is by nature somewhat speculative, the fact that trade and economic ties between Russia and China are a fraction of ties with the EU and US is a good indicator of its likelihood.

Crucially, there are important factors preventing this partnership from expanding beyond a limited and convenient one. The most overwhelming one is what Lo terms the "asymmetry" of the relationship: whilst Russia appeared to be on the ascendant in the early 1990s, Beijing's pre-eminence is now becoming startlingly clear. There also exist key areas of contention: competition over influence in Central Asia, uncertainty over the future of the Russian Far East and Russian fears about Chinese military and demographic capacities. This partnership, then, is one of superficial opportunism which for the sake of convenience overlooks underlying competition.

Lo also provides a good dose of Cold War history, outlining the long-standing mistrust and divergent ambitions which define both countries and ultimately make a partnership based on ideology impossible. The partnership which they have recently engaged in goes little way in undermining the fundamentally divergent approaches and mentalities which have given rise to centuries of bitter rivalry.

The prognosis for the next ten years is clear for Lo. This partnership will persist as a limited and ambivalent one. In particular, the focus of both Russia and China on their Western allies will remain their primary one: Russia needs to maintain good relationships with the EU to secure its ambitions to become a "bridge" or "third pole," and China will not risk upsetting the Americans in pursuit of its role as a constructive international actor who is everybody's friend.

Lo's writing is engaging and accessible, and provides a cool-headed critique of the folly of melodramatic terms in understanding international relations. The book was written before the financial crisis had really hit, so Lo's dismissal of multipolarity theories must be tempered with the huge changes which are currently being orchestrated in how to organize the globalized economy. Nonetheless, "Axis of Convenience" offers insight into a relationship which has been all too easily misrepresented in a climate of new-world-order hysteria. Lo urges his reader to see this relationship, as opportunistic, tactical and void of ideology as it is, as a force for good in a world which can only benefit from the stabilization of explosive geopolitical issues. It is a book which provides a much-needed moment of pause in the current whirlwind of speculation and suspicion of the world's lesser understood political actors.

Buy at Amazon.com or Amazon.de

Eimear O'Casey is currently an intern with Atlantic Community.