but recent years have seen a reassertion of old-style authoritarianism and a new belligerence by Russia in its foreign policy the idea of their country as a great power still exerts a hold on the Russian imagination Meanwhile after the relatively isolationist years of the cold war China is widely acknowledged as the superpower of the future if not the present Its global interests have expanded in conjunction with its economic growth and questions are nervously being asked about what this might mean for the international community