Asymmetric dependency and bargaining power: new balances in Chinese-Russian energy relations

It is obvious that hard power has relatively lost its importance in today's international relations era. On the other hand, it is seen that strategic energy resources, which are among the elements of national power, become even more important in a period when the hard power, which is commonly associated with military dimensions, begins to lose its importance. One of the indicators of this is the statements that argues the energy resources have become the currency of international politics. The importance that energy resources have gained is undoubtedly related to the phenomenon of power. In this context, it is possible to encounter this relationship, including in an environment of interdependence, where the actors weaken the possibility of a conflict, including the use of military force, against each other to a negligible level. As a matter of fact, relationships based on strategic energy resources in a collaborative environment such as interdependency can turn into a power factor due to the asymmetries that emerge today. In this context, it is witnessed that energy resources are used as leverage for bargaining power in international politics. However, it should be discussed which side is in favor of the bargaining power obtained from energy sources. Related to this, the common belief in the literature is bargaining power is in favor of actors with strategic energy resources like Russia. However, it can be argued that this situation started to lose its validity, especially with the sanctions implemented after the Ukraine Crisis. The claim in question will be more understandable when China-Russia relations are analyzed in the context of energy. In this context, the main purpose of the thesis is to analyze the recent developments and characteristics of China-Russia energy relations based on interdependency.