During the Cold War, Soviet-Chinese relations underwent significant metamorphoses. The countries experienced a period of acute conflict and even confrontation - the border conflict on Damansky Island in 1969, which became quite bloody, was an illustrative event of this stage. Nevertheless, by the end of the 1980s, tensions in Russian-Chinese relations were replaced by progressive, constructive development. A landmark result of this development was the signing of the Russian-Chinese Joint Declaration on a Multipolar World and the Formation of a New International Order on April 23, 1997. This document was revolutionary by the standards of its time. Despite the fact that the 1990s were a time when Western ideas and narratives dominated world politics and the science of international relations, the Russian and Chinese foreign policy leaders, the authors of this document, found the intellectual courage and foresight to formulate an alternative image of the system of international relations based on the sovereign equality of states, respect for sovereignty, non-interference in internal affairs, and a mutual consideration of interests. An important thesis of the declaration was the statement that the type of domestic political system in a country does not play a role as a parameter in foreign policy co-operation, i.e. the issues of domestic policy in a particular state remain its internal prerogative and are a secondary subject for foreign policy, if they appear on the agenda at all.
However, over time, the Russian and Chinese epistemologies of international relations have become somewhat different. These differences became particularly significant and pronounced in the post-bipolar era. In this period, many states, trying to find their place in the transforming world order, paradoxically turned not to national experience but to the Western epistemology of international relations. English emerged as the basic language of international relations theory, and the relevant disciplines in universities began to be taught using textbooks published in the United States and Great Britain. Having studied the curricula of a number of major universities in a group of leading countries from different regions of the world, my colleagues and I have discovered that even now, in a significant number of countries the practice of training diplomats and international relations specialists is imported. We are talking about importing books, courses, and sometimes even teachers – having received some form of education in the West, they broadcast a Western perspective when they return home.