ABSTRACTS

01An Analysis of the Impact of Russia-Ukraine Conflict on China-US Relations,by Zhao Minghao, Senior Research Fellow at the Center for American Studies, Fudan University and Guest Research Fellow at the Institute of International and Strategic Studies, Peking University. The Russia-Ukraine conflict is a violent outbreak of geopolitical contradictions on the Eurasian continent in the wake of the Cold War, constituting a major impact on the international order. The conflict reflects the new trend of strategic game between the US and Russia, which will also have a profound and complex impact on China-US relations. With the help of the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US has elevated the so-called “China threat” with the strategy of “binding China and Russia”, manipulated the value barrier of the global economy, and created an economic war system with sanctions as the core. The US will also tend to intensify its pressure on China in the field of global governance. The Russia-Ukraine conflict will not change the determination of the US to pursue its Indo-Pacific strategy. The US will use the conflict to speed up the building of alliance and partner systems, especially enhance the military offensive capabilities of Japan, Australia and other countries. Against the backdrop of Russia-Ukraine conflict, the US has further strengthened its military, economic, trade, scientific and technological ties with the Taiwan authorities, and tried to build an “international barrier” for Taiwan through the US-Japan alliance, the QUAD mechanism, and the US-EU joint action, thus making the trend of “strategic clarity” in its Taiwan policy become more obvious.

23The Russia-US Relationship and Its Prospect in the Context of Russia-Ukraine Conflict,by Dr. Zhang Jian, Lecturer at the Department of Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs Management, China Foreign Affairs University. In the contemporary major-country relations and the international landscape, the relationship between Russia and the US has all along attracted much attention. For a long time, the structural contradictions in Russia-US relations have always been difficult to overcome. The practices by the US that ignore Russia’s core interests, such as the eastward expansion of NATO, the deployment of US anti-missile systems in Eastern Europe, and various US supports to Ukraine, have deepened Russia-US contradictions at different levels and made them hard to improve. Since US President Joe Biden took office, the brewing Ukraine issue has brought multiple challenges to Russia-US relations. The “special military operation” launched by Russia in Ukraine on February 24, 2022 escalated the turmoil in the international situation, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict and the game of major countries behind it have become the focus of widespread concern in the international community. The Russia-Ukraine conflict has not only worsened the relations between countries concerned, but also seriously intensified the conflicts between Russia and the United States. Russia and the US have their own strategic goals and adopt various policies and measures in this military conflict that has lasted several months, making the game between the two sides more intense. The continuous deterioration of Russia-US relations after the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine conflict will bring greater variables to and serious negative impacts on the international order, geopolitics and European security, which deserves our close attention and in-depth study.

39International Security Issues: Continuity and Transformation,by Wang Fan, Vice President, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor, China Foreign Affairs University; and Si Yuanyuan, Doctoral Student of International Relations, China Foreign Affairs University. Since their inception, international security studies have roughly gone through four periods, namely the Cold War, the ten years after the Cold War, global counterterrorism and major-country competition and cooperation, with core issues extending from the military and political fields to economy, environment, diseases, energy, cyber and other diversified areas, whose development is characterized by stable continuity and important transformations highlighting the new era. Among them, the nature of the international system, the logical defects in defining the concept of “international security” and the academia’s attention to the traditional military and political fields are the main factors for the continuation of the issues; and the changes in the politics among major countries and the international power structure, the rapid development of science and technology, the continuous expansion of the concept of “security” and the functions of security mechanisms, the occurrence of realistic events, globalization and the dominance of the US and Europe in the setting of security issues are the important roots that have jointly promoted the change of international security issues. From this perspective, the development and changes of international security issues can also be regarded as the epitome of the changes in the international security landscape. In the post-COVID-19 era amid the great changes unseen in a century, the traditional issues in international security issues have been renewed with great vitality and presented new characteristics, the non-traditional security issues have continued to dominant along with traditional ones, and some interwoven and frontier security issues have also received more attention in the context of competition and cooperation among major countries.

60Biden’s Efforts to Strengthen US-South Korea Alliance and Its Impact on China-South Korea Relations,by Lyu Chunyan, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor, Information Engineering University. The US-South Korea alliance has been further strengthened since the inauguration of the Biden administration, with the two sides quickly reaching a defense costsharing agreement, carrying out intensive high-level consultation on North Korea, steadily promoting the adjustment of division of labor within the alliance, and continuing to consolidate their joint defense posture, so as to re-strengthen the cohesion of the US-South Korea alliance. The US and South Korea have also upgraded their relationship to a “comprehensive alliance” that extends its functions to jointly responding to global issues, economic security and cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region. In addition, with the strengthening of the trilateral cooperation mechanism among the US, Japan and South Korea and the synergy of the US-South Korea alliance with other small multilateral mechanisms, the cooperation of the US-South Korea alliance has become diversified. Biden’s efforts to strengthen the US-South Korea alliance have a strong China-related orientation, which increases the negative impact on China-South Korea relations. In the future, in the context of intensifying competition between China and the US, South Korea will further increase its “strategic autonomy”, and its China policy and China-South Korea relations will enter a period of adjustment.

79An Initial Analysis of the Foreign Policy of the Yoon Seok-youl Government in South Korea,by Dr. Wang Fudong, Associate Research Professor at the Institute of Northeast Asian Studies, CICIR. In March 2022, Yoon Seok-youl, the conservative candidate of the People Power Party, was elected as the 20th president of South Korea. The foreign policy vision of the new government is quite different from that of the Moon Jae-in administration. The new government of South Korea has set its overall goal of becoming a global hub state, which plans to abandon the “strategic ambiguity” policy of the previous administration and prioritize the building of a comprehensive alliance between South Korea and the United States. It will also emphasize “mutual respect” with China, increase pressure on North Korea, improve relations with Japan, and promote cooperation among South Korea, the US and Japan. The foreign policy vision of the new South Korean government is closely related to domestic and external factors, such as the intensification of majorcountry competition, the profound influence of the US on South Korea, and the political game within South Korea. South Korea’s foreign policy adjustment will have an important impact on the regional landscape in Northeast Asia, the North Korean nuclear issue and China-South Korea relations, but its implementation will also be restricted by inconsistency found in the internal logic of South Korea’s domestic politics, geopolitics, geo-economy and diplomatic strategy.

96A Preliminary Study on the Foreign Policy of the New Pakistani Government,by Peng Nian, Executive Director of the Center for SAARC Studies and Associate Research Fellow at the Foreign Languages College, Hainan Normal University; and Khurram Abbas, Senior Research Fellow at Islamabad Policy Research Institute, Pakistan. This paper analyzes the trend of Pakistan’s foreign policy from the perspective of the realistic challenges facing the new Pakistani government and the policy preferences of the new Prime Minister Shahbaz Sharif. The study concluded that Pakistan’s new government faces serious internal challenges and that dealing with domestic affairs is its top priority rather than foreign affairs. Therefore, continuity will dominate Pakistan’s future foreign policy. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Shahbaz’s policy preference for economic development and his pragmatic and flexible governing style will also bring new changes to Pakistan’s foreign policy. To be specific, the new Pakistani government will consolidate its all-weather friendly relations with China and accelerate the construction of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor; repair relations with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states and restore their close economic ties; try to reach out to India to ease the deadlock between the two countries; and adjust hostile policy towards the US and improve Pakistan-US relations.

115Challenges and Paths to China’s “Constructive Involvement” in Afghanistan Reconstruction,by Zhang Xinping, Professor and Doctoral Supervisor at the School of Marxism, Lanzhou University; and Dai Jiawei, Doctoral Student at the School of Marxism, Lanzhou University. With the Taliban taking power in Afghanistan, the situation in the country has entered a new phase. The stability of Afghanistan is of great significance to China’s border security and the steady progress of the Belt and Road Initiative in Central and South Asia. China’s participation in the reconstruction of Afghanistan will help stabilize the situation in Afghanistan and the political and economic environment in the region, safeguard the security of its neighbors and show China’s image as a responsible major country. “Constructive involvement” is an important innovation in China’s handling of regional and neighboring hot issues since the 18th National Congress of the CPC. It is of both theoretical and practical significance to study China’s participation in Afghanistan reconstruction from this perspective. The sharp political contradictions, frequent tribal conflicts, weak economic foundation and fierce strategic game among major countries in Afghanistan pose challenges to China’s participation in the reconstruction of Afghanistan. In view of this, China should proceed from three aspects: follow the international consensus and promote the political settlement of the Afghan issue; rely on collective security to fill the security gaps in Afghanistan; and advocate the approach of addressing both symptoms and root causes and enhance Afghanistan’s capacity for independent development.