Professional Affiliation

Senior Research Fellow, Finnish Institute of International Affairs

Expert Bio

Marcin Kaczmarski is a Senior Research Fellow at the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood and Russia research programme, Finnish Institute of International Affairs. His research interests include Russia-China relations, Russia’s foreign policy, great-power regionalism, rising powers, peaceful change in international politics and the role of domestic politics in foreign policy. He was a visiting scholar at Aberystwyth University (UK), Chengchi University (Taiwan), Slavic-Eurasian Research Center (Japan) and Aleksanteri Institute (Finland). Before joining FIIA in January 2018, he combined his scholarly research at the University of Warsaw with policy analysis for the Warsaw-based think-tank, Centre for Eastern Studies (OSW), where he worked in the Russian Department (2006-2012) and headed the China-EU Programme (2014-2017). He blogs on current developments in Russia-China relations at www.RussiaChinaRelations.com. 

Wilson Center Project

The New Silk Road and the Eurasian Union: Can Russia and China Square the Circle?

Project Summary

The project explores the implications of Russia and China’s pursuit of regional cooperation initiatives in Eurasia, the Eurasian Economic Union/Greater Eurasia and the New Silk Road respectively. Challenging the political and intellectual shortcuts that portray these two endeavours as competitive by default and ultimately leading to Sino-Russian rivalry, the project analyzes how Russian and Chinese ruling elites understand regionalism and regional influence. The Russian-Chinese relationship is one of the key factors shaping the dynamics of international politics in the global dimension and influencing the Kremlin’s foreign policy, its relations with the West in particular. Understanding why and how Russia and China have managed to maintain close cooperation despite growing power asymmetry and allegedly conflicting interests in Eurasia is of vital importance for the study and practice of international politics.

Major Publications

Russia-China Relations in the Post-Crisis International Order, London: Routledge (2015)

 

Non-Western visions of regionalism: China’s New Silk Road and Russia’s Eurasian Union, International Affairs 93/6 (2017)

 

Two ways of influence-building: the Eurasian Economic Union and the New Silk Road, Europe-Asia Studies, 69/7 (2017)