Featured Content

This article examines the stages of establishing a Southeast Asian regional complex from the end of the 1940s to the present day. The prehistory of creating a regionwide organization that would allow the building of a collective regional identity is described.

The border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland is the key issue at the talks on Brexit. An absence of Ireland’s only land border is its most amazing feature. The winding and twisting border of nearly 499 km long is not marked by pillars or barriers; there is no barbed wire or checkpoints. After the 2016 referendum on the withdrawal of Great Britain from the EU, the border issue moved to the fore in the relations between the UK and Ireland. When the UK leaves the European Union, the counties on both sides of the twisting border will become the frontier of the EU which will increase, at least theoretically, the possibility of political and economic crises and deeper conflicts in both countries.

This article analyzes China’s position on reaching a settlement on the crisis in Afghanistan. The dynamic of Beijing’s approach is described with allowance for inter-Afghan and regional challenges: strengthening the armed opposition in Afghanistan, its influence on the Muslim Uighurs of Xinjiang, and strengthening the strategic partnership between the United States and India in the region. The year 2015, when Beijing and Islamabad signed an agreement to create a China-Pakistan economic corridor (CPEC), was a landmark for the region.

The dispute between the United States and the People’s Republic of China over trade and economic issues has a long history. It has now become clear, however, that Donald Trump’s protectionist policy is in direct contrast to China’s consistent position in defense of free trade, based on the principles of the World Trade Organization (WTO). Washington sees in Beijing its main strategic competitor and has adopted a policy of long-term opposition to China in all spheres, including trade and economics. Having launched a trade war against China, the United States is also doing its best to weaken by noneconomic means their growing competition in the field of high technology.

This article analyzes development prospects of relations between Russia and Japan as Japanese diplomacy toward Russia becomes more active. In May 2016, Prime Minister S. Abe put forward an eight-point cooperation program. More than 100 economic agreements have been signed within the framework of that program; however, most of them have not been implemented. The author examines the reasons for failure of these bilateral relations to develop.

This article analyzes Japan’s policy in the basin of the Pacific and Indian Oceans. The term “Indo-Pacific Region” is more often used in scientific circles and mass media now instead of Asia-Pacific Region, which reflects the radical economic and political shifts in the basin of the two oceans.

Under President Donald Trump, the United States will continue to follow a policy of global hegemony under the slogan “America First,” primarily to its own advantage. This applies to both Russo-American and Sino-American relations.

December 11, 2016 marked the 15th anniversary of China becoming a member of the World Trade Organization. According to the Chinese, this date is grounds for automatically granting China the status of a country with a market economy. What has changed in relations between China and the countries of the European Union since that date, and what is behind the European countries’ hesitation to grant China this status? How are the results of the referendum in Great Britain influencing relations between China and the European Union? What are the prospects for the European Union and the United States concluding a Transatlantic Partnership trade agreement, and how will China’s position in Europe be affected as a result? These questions and others are examined in this work.

The author examines the results of the 15-year activity of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, its structure, and relations between its members. He also analyzes its role in the region and partnership problems, and forecasts the organization’s development prospects in the currently unfolding new world order.

China has proposed a number of integration concepts that are compatible with the interests of Russia but contradict efforts by the United States to maintain a unipolar world order under its hegemony. The author’s aim is to assess the pluses and minuses of RF and PRC integration projects in Eurasia, identify the obstacles standing in the way of their execution, and find ways of eliminating existing problems.