NEW DIMENSIONS IN THE POST-COLD-WAR RUSSIAN-PRC-AMERICAN RELATIONSHIP

During the latter half of the 1980s, the bipolar system of international relations began to change. Economic and political instability, the power crisis, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States have reduced the political and strategic weight of the Russian Federation as successor of the Soviet Union. Changes in America's priorities toward the Soviet Union and the PRC occurred. The PRC lost its former status of the privileged ''communist partner.'' The United States and the Soviet Union began an unprecedented era of interaction and cooperation on various global issues. The PRC realpolitik also has shown a strong interest in broadening its relationship with the United States on several different fronts. It also moved to increase dialogue with the former Soviet Union. The new global situation will force the United States to seek new, strong strategic alliances. The unification of Korea, the transfer of Hong Kong to PRC control, and the settlement of the ''internal affair'' with the Republic of China on Taiwan could magnify the influence of the growing Chinese economy, thereby pushing the United States and Japan closer together and heightening the role of Russia in the future multipolar world.