№ 4 - 1994
Sorokin K.E.
Russia and the Play of Geopolitical Interests in the Great Ocean Area

Russia and the Play of Geopolitical Interests in the Great Ocean Area In this new article of his, one of a series analyzing the system of states' interaction in various regions of the world, the author predicts the emergence of a new geopolitical balance of forces, and dwells on probable changes in the nature of the relations within the Asia — Pacific area. The role of the latter in the future world order, he believes, will equal, or even surpass, that of the Euro-Atlantic area. The burgeoning potentials of many of the Asian and Pacific nations prompt the traditional "first-order" ones — the US, China, Japan, and, of course, Russia — to change their geostrategies to match the characteristics, earlier discussed by the author, of the emerging multipolar paradigm of the world. Special attention is reserved for the Sino-Russian relations doomed, in the author's opinion, to grow even more complicated than they are now. The author analyzes the probability of China's geopolitical expansion into Siberia and the Russian Far East — hypothesis based on the "traditionalist and Maoist matrix" of China's geopolitical behavior. The analysis of all these items has led the author to propose immediate measures to activate and fortify Russia's policies and positions in the Asia — Pacific region. The measures suggested are based on the provisions of his "balancing equidistance" concept (see "Polis", 1994, №1).