Bobo Lo

Bobo Lo is an independent analyst. He was previously Director of the China and Russia Programmes at the Centre for European Reform; Head of the Russia and Eurasia Programme at Chatham House; and Deputy Head of Mission at the Australian Embassy in Moscow.

Dr. Lo writes extensively on Russian and Chinese foreign policy. His books include “Russia and the New World Disorder” (forthcoming in July 2015), “Axis of Convenience: Moscow, Beijing and the New Geopolitics” (2008), “Vladimir Putin and the Evolution of Russian Foreign Policy” (2003), and “Russian Foreign Policy in the Post-Soviet Era: Reality, Illusion and Mythmaking” (2002).

Other recent writings include ‘Frontiers new and old: Russia’s policy in Central Asia’, Russie.NEI.Visions, no.82, January 2015; ‘Crimea’s Sudeten crisis’, Project Syndicate, 18 March 2014; ‘Russia’s Eastern direction: distinguishing the real from the virtual’, Russie.NEI.Visions, no.17, January 2014; ‘Putin’s pivot: why Russia is looking East’ (with Fiona Hill), Foreign Affairs, 31 July 2013; ‘A 21st century myth – authoritarian modernization in Russia and China’ (with Lilia Shevtsova), Carnegie Moscow Center report, June 2012; and ‘A partnership of convenience’, New York Times, 7 June 2012.

Bobo Lo has an MA from Oxford and a PhD from the University of Melbourne.

Our Comment

"Dr. Bobo Lo is an expert speaker and frequent commentator on Russian and Chinese foreign policy, as well as the future of political and economics relations between the two countries and the West. He also shares unique insights in to China's future in the 21st century world, and development forecasts in the global context."

Russia, China and World Order

Russia and the West - past, present, and future

Russia and the New World Disorder

The Russian annexation of Crimea was one of the great strategic shocks of the past twenty-five years. For many in the West, Moscow’s actions in early 2014 marked the end of illusions about cooperation, and the return to geopolitical and ideological confrontation. Russia, for so long a peripheral presence, had become the central actor in a new global drama. In this groundbreaking book, renowned scholar Bobo Lo analyzes the broader context of the crisis by examining the interplay between Russian foreign policy and an increasingly anarchic international environment. He argues that Moscow’s approach to regional and global affairs reflects the tension between two very different worlds—the perceptual and the actual.