International Relations Theory and the Puzzle of China-Russia Alignment

It has been widely noted that China and Russia have grown progressively closer over the last two decades. Although the scholarly literature has offered detailed descriptions and various ad hoc explanations of this trend, the Sino-Russian bilateral relationship has been the subject of very little scrutiny using rigorous theory, which has obstructed hypothesis formation and evaluation. Moreover, the cooperative post-Cold War trend in the bilateral relationship seems puzzling for baseline versions of each of the major paradigms of international relations theory: realism, constructivism and liberalism. This introductory chapter reviews the centrality of theory for explanation and critiques prevailing atheoretical approaches to China-Russia scholarship. It then contrasts this past work with the subsequent chapters in the present volume, which develop and apply nuanced theoretical arguments to derive testable hypotheses for the cooperative trend in China-Russia relations. In contrast to existing scholarship, these chapters offer generalizable insights that both improve our understanding of a crucially important contemporary case, while also advancing IR theory in substantial ways.