Twilight of the“Great Strategic Triangle”: China, Russia, and America Since the Cold War

Twilight of the“Great Strategic Triangle”: China, Russia, and America Since the Cold War

The fundamental power-political forces driving the triangle into a marriage seem almost inexorable in retrospect: both countries deem criticisms of their elections or human rights policies dangerous to regime legitimacy, both have ambitions that America is in principle determined to block; and America is in terminal decline. But for the marriage to be sustained, the leaderships knew that they would need to work hard to interknit these two historical adversaries. These“solidarity enhancement measures”(SEMs) have focused on three areas: 1) the integration of social ties, 2) the cultivation of mutually beneficial and self-sustaining economic ties, and 3) the linkage of security forces.