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\nThe sense of Great Power competition and challenge to the liberal international order that characterised the Euro-Atlantic community\u2019s debate through the 2010s has become more acute in 2020. Government responses to the spread of COVID-19 have provided much ammunition for those who describe a weakening of the liberal order and the threat posed by authoritarian regimes. And the sense of competition between the powers was illustrated by the race to create a vaccine, redolent for many of the Cold War era, with Russia\u2019s \u201cSputnik V\u201d vaccine controversially being registered first in August.<\/p>\n
\nYet the spread of the COVID-19 pandemic suggests a new stage, with a greater emphasis on emergent bipolarity in international affairs. If Russia was the original point of focus in the \u201cNew Cold War\/ Cold War 2.0\u201d of the 2010s, attention has now shifted to the rise of China. In September 2020, then-US Secretary of Defence Mark Esper stated that China is now the main concentration for his department, and that departmental attention would be on the Indo-Pacific region. Other senior officials consider Russia to be \u201cbursts of bad weather\u201d, while China represents \u201cclimate change\u201d, the greater long-term adversary.1<\/a><\/p>\n China\u2019s economic recovery \u2013 already returning in late 2020 to growth while the US, UK and Eurozone remain in red and facing surging debt \u2013 is seen to be the foundation for a more assertive international activity. \nWhat, then, of Russia? What has the crisis meant for Russian strategy? Does the pandemic change Moscow\u2019s view of international affairs and its international posture? \n More Research Division Publications…<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n NDC Public Affairs Office<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" NDC Policy Brief 22-20: Russian Grand Strategy and the COVID crisis , by Andrew Monaghan.* The sense of<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","editor_plus_copied_stylings":"{}","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"post_badge":[],"class_list":["post-13150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"featured_image_src":null,"author_info":{"display_name":"NDC","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ndc.nato.int\/fr\/author\/admin_3rwqf6tj\/"},"modified_by":null,"author_meta":{"display_name":"NDC","author_link":"https:\/\/www.ndc.nato.int\/fr\/author\/admin_3rwqf6tj\/"},"featured_img":null,"featured_image_urls":{"full":"","thumbnail":"","medium":"","medium_large":"","large":"","1536x1536":"","2048x2048":"","trp-custom-language-flag":"","morenews-featured":"","morenews-large":"","morenews-medium":""},"category_info":"News<\/a>","tag_info":"News","comment_count":0,"coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["News<\/a>"],"unlinked":["News<\/span>"]}},"relative_dates":{"created":"Publi\u00e9 6 ans il y a","modified":"Mis \u00e0 jour 8 mois il y a"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Publi\u00e9 le d\u00e9cembre 7, 2020","modified":"Mise \u00e0 jour le janvier 15, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Publi\u00e9 le d\u00e9cembre 7, 2020 15:30","modified":"Mise \u00e0 jour le janvier 15, 2026 09:31"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ndc.nato.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ndc.nato.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ndc.nato.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ndc.nato.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ndc.nato.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13150"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ndc.nato.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13150\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ndc.nato.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ndc.nato.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ndc.nato.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13150"},{"taxonomy":"post_badge","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ndc.nato.int\/fr\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post_badge?post=13150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n2<\/a><\/p>\n
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\nDownload the publication<\/a> to keep reading.<\/p>\n
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\n 1<\/sup> (back)<\/a><\/span>
\n \u201cSecretary of Defence Speech at RAND\u201d, 16 September 2020, Website of the Department of Defence; \u201cMI5 Chief: Russia\u2019s intelligence services provide bursts of bad weather while China is climate change\u201d, The Telegraph<\/em>, 14 October 2020.\n<\/div>\n
\n 2<\/sup> (back)<\/a><\/span>
\n L. Diamond, \u201cDemocracy versus the pandemic\u201d, Foreign Affairs<\/em>, June 2020; K. Rudd, \u201cThe coming post-COVID Anarchy\u201d, Foreign Affairs<\/em>, May 2020; \u201cA new Cold War: Trump, Xi and the escalating US-China confrontation\u201d, Financial Times<\/em>, 4 October 2020; see also B. Gill, \u201cChina in the COVID world: continued challenges for a rising power\u201d, NDC Policy Brief<\/em> No.20, NATO Defense College, November 2020.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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