Partners of dragon

Abstract

This thesis aims to explain why China prefers to from strategic partnerships instead of forming formal alliances. The thesis presents the nature of alliances as binding which is a contrast with the flexibility of strategic partnership policies. According to this explanation, alliances can entrap China into a war while partnerships are allowing to sustain relationships without the having obligations of alliances. This thesis uses the case study method and cases are China-Russia, China-Pakistan strategic partnerships. In the China-Russia relationship, Russia’s conflicts with Georgia and Ukraine are examined as risks of China’s entrapment into an unwanted conflict. In the China-Pakistan strategic partnership, Sino- Indian conflict is represented as a reason for China to form a partnership with Pakistan. Meanwhile, the ongoing India-Pakistan tensions in the Kashmir and Afghanistan are presented as possibilities for China’s entrapment and reasons of not preferring to form a formal alliance with Pakistan.