Professor Jeffrey Crean of Tyler Junior College will give a lecture titled "Chinese Puzzles and the Russian Peril: The Fears Behind a Great Power Partnership" at 5 p.m. today, Thursday, Feb. 1, in Kimpel Hall 105.

Russia is the world's largest country, and it shares its longest border with China, the world's most populous country. For the past 150 years, their relationship has oscillated between rivalry and friendship, but has always been shaped by Russians' persistent fears of the Chinese. Ironically, these fears have been most pronounced during periods of Chinese weakness. This is because they were as much about racial suspicions as they were about power politics. This talk analyzes the course of the Russo-Chinese relationship, which has long been of great relevance to the United States and highly impactful on global affairs.

Crean teaches history at Tyler Junior College. His first book, The Fear of Chinese Power, was just published by Bloomsbury.

This lecture is co-sponsored by the International and Global Studies Program, Asian Studies, the Arkansas Humanities Center and the Department of World Languages, Literatures and Cultures.