Convincingly traces a line from America's conduct during and after the fall of the USSR to Russia's bellicosity today.--James Tarmy "Bloomberg" (12/19/2024 12:00:00 AM)

Haslam's story has many parts, which interlock in the thesis that Americans and their allies pushed Russia into wariness, if not war. Like his fellow realist John Mearsheimer, ...Haslam identifies NATO's expansion eastward as a wound to Russia's pride. This isn't to say that he accepts Russia's nonsensical rationale for the invasion as "self-defense." But, as he argues, Russia's leaders and population had been humiliated, and the country found itself increasingly isolated--things American politicians did nothing to counteract and occasionally celebrated. This didn't guarantee, let alone justify, a war. But it did set up the conditions for one.--Samuel Moyn "Harper's Magazine" (8/1/2025 12:00:00 AM)

[An] important book...Haslam is no Putin apologist, but he will undoubtedly be subjected to such claims by those unwilling 'to see the plank' in their own eye. Putin is a ruthless dictator, and imperialism is part of Russia's DNA. But to ignore the missteps on America's part that led to Ukraine's tragedy would be to risk repeating the folly in the future. Haslam's book is a warning that we should have learned from the ancients: hubris often leads to nemesis.--Francis P. Sempa "New York Journal of Books" (1/27/2025 12:00:00 AM)

A renowned historian of Soviet and Russian foreign policy, Haslam's judicious handling of a huge range of sources make his book an enduring contribution to its fraught subject-matter.--Geoffrey Roberts "Political Quarterly" (4/21/2025 12:00:00 AM)

A hard-edged study in geopolitical miscalculation on all sides.-- "Kirkus Reviews" (10/26/2024 12:00:00 AM)

Sixty years ago, Senator J. William Fulbright eloquently argued that 'the arrogance of power' was the root of America's disastrous war in Vietnam. Jonathan Haslam has produced a masterpiece on a similar theme: how America's hubris led it to squander the opportunity for peace at the end of the Cold War, and instead to plunge recklessly into dangerous wars of choice, including the conflict in Ukraine. With meticulous care, Haslam shows the amateurism of America's post-Cold War presidents and the war machine that revs in America's deep state.--Jeffrey Sachs, Columbia University

An elegantly written and exhaustively sourced critique of US and Western policy towards Russia across the past thirty years. Essential reading for anyone interested in Russian foreign policy.--S. Neil MacFarlane, University of Oxford

Publisher: Belknap Press

Pub date: 2026-09-22

Length: 368 pages