Ever since the escalating conflicts in the South and East China Seas and the Ukraine crisis in 2014, power politics and geopolitics have been front-page news. With a sense of shock, the Western world has become aware that conflicts between the great powers are not a thing of the past, and that even the annexation of parts of a sovereign state is possible in the 21st century. In contrast to their Cold War predecessors, however, most Western politicians have no experience of such events. What's more, the populations of Western countries are hardly aware of what is really going on.

This book is an attempt to re-visit existing knowledge in this area and to present new insights. In doing so, the Ukraine case and the ongoing conflicts in the South and East China Seas are examined, cases that have more in common than would initially appear.

This book could never have come about without the assistance of the staff of The Hague Centre for Strategic Studies. Above all, Frank Bekkers went to great lengths to make this study the best book it could be.