Navigating Great Power Rivalry
Description
How can small and middle powers preserve security, sovereignty, and strategic flexibility amid intensifying competition between major powers? From Ukraine and Europe to the Indo-Pacific, growing geopolitical tensions are forcing governments to rethink longstanding assumptions about alliances, deterrence, economic interdependence, and strategic autonomy.
Supported by the Security & Defence Initiative of the PLuS Alliance (S&D+), this public panel brings together three leading scholars from Arizona State University, King's College London, and UNSW Sydney to discuss how states navigate an increasingly uncertain international environment and what lessons can be drawn from contemporary developments across Europe and the Indo-Pacific.
The panel will begin with brief presentations by:
· Professor Keith Brown (Arizona State University)
· Professor Samuel Greene (King's College London)
· Dr Alexander Korolev (UNSW Sydney)
Drawing on their expertise in international relations, comparative politics, political sociology, and contemporary security affairs, the speakers will explore how small and middle powers respond to great power rivalry, how domestic politics shape foreign policy choices, and what strategies succeed or fail under conditions of heightened uncertainty.
The presentations will be followed by a moderated discussion and audience Q&A, providing an opportunity for a wider conversation about strategic uncertainty, alliance politics, international order, and the future of global security.
Lineup
Keith Brown
Keith Brown is the current Fulbright Bicentennial Chair in American Studies at the University of Helsinki, and Director of the Melikian Center for Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies at Arizona State University, where he is also a Professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies. He holds a PhD in anthropology from the University of Chicago and a BA in classics from Oxford University, and has held fellowships at the United States Institute of Peace, the University of Connecticut Humanities Institute and the Helsinki Collegium. His scholarly work has its roots in the history, culture and politics of the Western Balkans, with a particular emphasis on 20th century Macedonia. He has spent extended time in the region, and his published works include The Past in Question: Modern Macedonia and the Uncertainties of Nation (Princeton University Press, 2003) and Loyal Unto Death: Trust and Terror in Revolutionary Macedonia (Indiana University Press, 2013). His recent projects, including this one, extend this research to explore the significance of transatlantic flows of people (including citizen diplomats), ideas (including civic norms) and goods (including humanitarian and development assistance) in wider geopolitical relations.
Samuel Greene
Samuel Greene is Professor of Russian Politics at King’s College London, where he founded and directed the King’s Russia Institute from 2012-2023. His the author of Putin vs the People (Yale University Press, 2019, with Graeme Robertson) and Moscow in Movement (Stanford University Press, 2014), along with numerous journal articles and chapters in political science and sociology. Prior to coming to King’s, Sam lived and worked for 13 years in Moscow, including as Deputy Director of the Carnegie Moscow Center and Director of the Center for the Study of New Media & Society at the New Economic School. He holds a PhD in political sociology from the London School of Economics & Political Science and is an elected fellow of the UK Academy of Social Sciences.
Alexander Korolev
Alexander Korolev is Senior Lecturer in Politics and International relations in the School of Social Sciences at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Prior to joining UNSW, he was a Research Fellow at the Centre on Asia and Globalisation, Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore (2015-2018). He holds an MA in International Relations from Nankai University’s Zhou Enlai School of Government (2009) and a PhD in Political Science from the Chinese University of Hong Kong (2012). He has been a visiting researcher in the Political Science Department at Brown University (2011-2012). His research lies at the intersection of International Relations theory and comparative politics, with particular expertise in great-power politics, strategic alignment, smaller power hedging, and China–Russia relations. Alexander is the author of When Hedging Fails: Structural Uncertainty, Protective Options, and Geopolitical (Im)Prudence in Smaller Powers’ Behaviour (Cambridge University Press, 2025) and China–Russia Strategic Alignment in International Politics (Amsterdam University Press, 2022). His research has appeared in leading journals, including International Studies Review, International Relations, Foreign Policy Analysis, Journal of Strategic Studies, International Relations of the Asia-Pacific, Pacific Affairs, Asian Security, British Journal of Politics and International Relations, and other journals.
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