ABSTRACT
This chapter examines Russia–US relations, focusing on their Asia-Pacific dimension. It argues that visions of the international order the United States and Russia hold are widely divergent. Washington remains committed to the idea of the US-led hegemony based on Western liberal values, whereas Moscow champions a multipolar great-power order founded upon the balance of power, Westphalian sovereignty, and diversity of values. The author finds a strong affinity between Moscow’s foreign policy discourse and Hedley Bull’s version of the English School in IR theory. Viewed from the English School perspective, the layer of fundamental norms and institutions linking Moscow and Washington together as citizens of one international society has become dangerously thin. This inevitably affects Russia–US interaction in the Asia-Pacific and makes their cooperation on pressing security issues such as North Korea difficult.
