© 2024 Iowa Public Radio
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

China, Russia, and Twenty-First Century Global Geopolitics

Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin

Russia’s relationship with China has strengthened in recent years following Moscow’s escalating tensions with the West after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

On this edition of River to River, Ben Kieffer talks with geopolitical scholar Sharyl Cross about the changing world order. 

"Both Moscow and Beijing share the position that they oppose what they perceive as U.S. hegemony in the international system. They believe that the United States needs to have a counterweight in terms of influencing the international community," says Cross.

"So I would say the difference lies in the fact that the Chinese are more cautious. They seek perhaps a gradual transition of the Western order that would more appropriately reflect their preferences and their interests. The Russians have been much more bold in challenging that Western liberal order."

Cross is in Des Moines today for a talk with Paul Bolt put on by the Des Moines Committee on Foreign Relations. Bolt and Cross are co-authors of China, Russia, and Twenty First Century Global Geopolitics, to be released in January 2018.

rtr171205_b.mp3
Listen to the interview with Jim Cochran and Soeren Prell - River to River

In the second half of the show, Kieffer talks with Iowa State University physics and astronomy professors,  Jim Cochran and Soeren Prell, who discuss their work using the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland to smash particles together in order to learn about their properties and the makeup of the universe.

Ben Kieffer is the host of IPR's River to River