The Eurasian security system: a preliminary framework for understanding the emerging Sino–Russian relationship

After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Sino–Russian relations have rapidly become a hotly debated topic within the fields of strategic studies and international relations. In this article, we propose a preliminary theoretical model for analysing the Russian–Chinese relation as a complex security system. By security system, we mean a system consisting of two or more elements (states) with shared and interdependent security concerns and interests. From the shared understandings of security of the elements, the system emerges with its emergent attributes and properties. After providing its theoretical and conceptual framework based on recent ideas in complex system theories, the article narrates how the Eurasian security system began to develop after the restructuring of global and Eurasian security architectures following the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. During the following decades, China and Russia developed mutually homogenous sets of perceived security threats and interests, and later in the post 2014-era, these interests converged to establish the Eurasian security system.