Kartal, Ece2025-09-092025-09-092025-082025-082025-09-03https://hdl.handle.net/11693/117501Cataloged from PDF version of article.Includes bibliographical references (leaves 124-153).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.ix, 153 leaves : charts ; 30 cm.Englishinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccessStrategic partnershipAllianceGreat powerBalancingThesisB163200