Pleased to announce the publication, open access, of a new book on the politics and foreign policy of the Russian Far East and the role of East Asia. One of the chapters, ‘Russia, China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization: Diverging Security Interests and the “Crimea Effect”,’ was written by myself, and there are sections on RFE local political and developmental issues, relations with China and East Asia, energy politics, and Arctic/Siberian affairs. The book’s starting point is the post-2014 Crimea crisis, as well as the announced ‘pivot to Asia’ by the Vladimir Putin government.
Abstract
‘This book explores if and how Russian policies towards the Far East region of the country – and East Asia more broadly – have changed since the onset of the Ukraine crisis and Russia’s annexation of Crimea. Following the 2014 annexation and the subsequent enactment of a sanctions regime against the country, the Kremlin has emphasized the eastern vector in its external relations. But to what extent has Russia’s “pivot to the East” intensified or changed in nature – domestically and internationally – since the onset of the current crisis in relations with the West? Rather than taking the declared “pivot” as a fact and exploring the consequences of it, the contributors to this volume explore whether a pivot has indeed happened or if what we see today is the continuation of longer-duration trends, concerns and ambitions.’
Russia’s Turn to the East: Domestic Policymaking and Regional Cooperation, edited by Helge Blakkisrud and Elana Wilson Rowe, Norwegian Institute of International Affairs (NUPI), Oslo (Palgrave Pivot, 2017).
Over the Circle 