The New Cold War at Sea exposes the growing maritime partnership between China and Russia, revealing how their increasingly coordinated naval strategies-from the Arctic to the Pacific-might threaten U.S. maritime dominance. Drawing on rare Russian and Mandarin sources, the authors offer a timely, eye-opening look at the potential global shift in sea power.
In early 2025 the Chinese and Russian fleets conducted the third in a series of trilateral naval exercises with Iran. Just prior, the Chinese Coast Guard, operating alongside the Russian Coast Guard, entered the Arctic for the first time. This China-Russia quasi-alliance is reshaping the global naval power balance, challenging U.S. naval supremacy through close and continuing collaboration. Russian assistance has propelled China's aircraft carrier program, modernized its destroyers and submarines, and delivered world-leading missiles and autonomous vehicles, posing a threat to U.S. allies such as Japan and the Philippines. The maritime implications of this alliance extend beyond the Indo-Pacific, touching all the world's oceans.
The New Cold War at Sea reveals crucial, generally unknown details of China-Russia maritime cooperation, from the Arctic to Southeast Asia, to Africa, and to Latin America. Based on a wealth of underutilized Mandarin and Russian-language sources, authors Lyle J. Goldstein and Vitaly A. Kozyrev provide an objective assessment of Chinese and Russian maritime symbiosis. By presenting unique evidence relating to the naval global balance as well as related policy proposals, the book aims to spark a vital national debate over the future of American maritime strategy in the emergent multipolar world.
About the Author :
Lyle J. Goldstein is a national security specialist focusing on China and Russia. At the U.S. Naval War College, he served as the founding director of the China Maritime Studies Institute and earned the Superior Civilian Service Award. He leads the China Initiative at Brown University and directs Asia studies for Defense Priorities.
Vitaly A. Kozyrev is a USSRborn sinologist-now a naturalized American citizen-who has served on the faculty of a number of institutions of higher education in the United States, China, and Russia. He is a Distinguished Professor of Political Science and International Studies at Endicott College, Beverly, Massachusetts. For the past two decades he has explored the history of U.S.-China-Russia relations, China's economic modernization, energy security in Eurasia, East Asian regionalism, and conflicts in the Asia-Pacific region.
Review :
“Goldstein and Kozyrev bring unrivalled expertise to unpacking the maritime dimension of the New Cold War. Their sober, thoughtful, and well-informed analysis should be read and studied in wardrooms and war colleges everywhere." — Andrew Bacevich, Col., USA (Ret.) and co-founder, Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft
“The burgeoning strategic alignment between China and Russia is perhaps the greatest geopolitical challenge facing the United States today. In this timely book, two leading China and Russia scholars, Lyle Goldstein and Vitaly Kozyrev, draw heavily on Chinese and Russian sources to paint a vivid picture of that challenge, with a focus on the maritime realm. The book is not a call to arms or alarm, but rather an appeal for a balanced approach that defuses the threat and establishes the contours of competitive coexistence with both Eurasian giants in the emerging multipolar world order. Both policymakers and pundits would be well advised to pay close attention.” — Thomas Graham, distinguished fellow, Council on Foreign Relations, and author of Getting Russia Right
“In this provocative study, Lyle Goldstein and Vitaly Kozyrev challenge Western policymakers to reckon with the profound consequences of the China-Russia quasi-alliance. Their eye-opening accounts of broad military cooperation and of converging interests around the world’s oceans show that the geopolitical alignment will not be a passing phenomenon. The authors’ extensive use of Chinese- and Russian-language sources, furthermore, allows readers to catch a rare glimpse of the internal debates that are shaping decisions in Beijing and Moscow. This book will be an invaluable companion to those seeking to understand why and how the two great continental powers could reshape the global maritime order.” — Toshi Yoshihara, senior fellow, Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, and author of Mao’s Army Goes to Sea
“Professors Lyle Goldstein and V. Kozyrev have written an important book, The New Cold War at Sea, which clearly describes the developing maritime alliance between Russia and China. This combination of forces promises to dominate Pacific and Indian Ocean spheres as the 21st Century moves beyond its first quarter. It is required reading for naval officers and analysts.”—Capt. Bernard D. Cole, USN (Ret.), PhD, professor emeritus, National War College
“Drawing on exhaustive research utilizing Russian and Chinese-language sources, Goldstein and Kozyrev have given us the authoritative analysis of Sino-Russian naval cooperation, a key dimension of the two great powers’ comprehensive strategic partnership. They assess the implications of this “quasi-alliance” for U.S. hegemony globally through a range of domains—in the Pacific, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, the Arctic, and in space. In each of these areas they find the incentives for cooperation to oppose U.S dominance outweigh policy difference between Russia and China, making any wedge strategy a chimera. The authors close their study with carefully considered recommendations on how Washington can better manage this apparently durable challenge and prevent Sino-Russian maritime collaboration from gaining further momentum. A must-read for policy makers and scholars in the fields of Chinese and Russian studies, national security, and international relations.”—Charles E. Ziegler, Ph.D., professor of political science and director, Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order, University of Louisville
“Drawing on exhaustive and detailed research, the authors weave together two major challenges of our time: the evolving Sino-Russian “quasi-alliance” and China’s growing naval power. They present a series of judicious and clear-headed policy recommendations designed to enhance stability in the emerging multipolar world order.”—Ellen Frost, Adjunct Research Fellow, East-West Center
“A stunningly informative analysis of the Sino-Russian alignment, unique in its review of the Chinese and Russian as well as the English-language literature, and its focus on the history and prospects for naval cooperation between the two countries. This is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the past and future evolution of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army Navy.”—Chas Freeman, Ambassador (Ret.) and former Assistant Secretary of Defense
"We are having too narrow a debate about a U.S., China conflict. The real danger isn’t limited to how a war might start, it is how the U.S. could be outmaneuvered before the first shot is fired. China and Russia don’t need a formal alliance to box in U.S. options. As Goldstein and Kozyrev argue, both countries overlapping interests, complimentary national security toolkits and rules to apply them - diplomacy, energy leverage, gray zone creation/exploitation, and selective military action, could sideline American strategy at the point of crisis, well before conflict develops.”—Adm. Scott Swift, USN (Ret.), former commander, U.S. Pacific Fleet
