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Mar

The Russo-Ukrainian War: Follies of Empire

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Overview

The number of casualties in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian war is rapidly approaching 1.5 million, with no resolution in sight … a staggering reality. Seeking to make what sense is possible of this catastrophic conflict, Richard Sakwa meticulously explores the origins, course, and consequences of the war in the sweeping context of global and domestic politics since 1945.

Sakwa’s balanced analysis centers on what he perceives as the five levels of the conflict: the dynamics of Ukrainian politics, the evolution of Russo-Ukrainian relations, the relationship between Russia and the West, broad changes in international politics, and the prospects for a viable and sustainable peace. In explaining―without endorsing―the logic behind actions on all sides, his goal is to contribute to a path toward that peace.

Read Introduction : The Russo-Ukrainian War: Follies of Empire by Richard Sakwa

Reviews

“Sakwa offers a transcendent explanation for how the war in Ukraine fits into a decimated relationship between Russia and what he calls the US-led political West…. Even those who believe that the war grew out of a dance that Russia and the West did together, but that Russia’s choice in February 2022 is indefensible, will find much in the book to ponder and much in Sakwa’s hopes for the war’s outcome and future Russian-West relations to admire.”
— Robert Legvold, Columbia University

“In this deeply researched book, Richard Sakwa displays a balance rare in Anglophone writing on the subject of the Russo-Ukrainian war…. Sakwa’s superb account should be read by all who want to understand the origins of this tragic, unnecessary conflict, and how it might be ended.”
— Robert Skidelsky, University of Warwick

“Sakwa’s analysis advances the most articulated interpretation of the war through the lens of sovereign internationalism. A must-read for all those who want alternative explanations of the broader framework of the conflict, accompanied by detailed analysis of the course and consequences of the war.”
— Marlene Laruelle, George Washington University

About the author

Richard Sakwa is Professor emeritus of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent at Canterbury, a Senior Research Fellow at the National Research University-Higher School of Economics in Moscow and an Honorary Professor in the Faculty of Political Science at Moscow State University. After graduating in History from the London School of Economics, he took a PhD from the Centre for Russian and East European Studies (CREES) at the University of Birmingham. He held lectureships at the Universities of Essex and California, Santa Cruz, before joining the University of Kent in 1987. He has published widely on Soviet, Russian, post-communist and international affairs. Recent books include Putin Redux: Power and Contradiction in Contemporary Russia (London and New York, Routledge, 2014), Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands (London, I. B. Tauris, 2016), Russia against the Rest: The Post-Cold War Crisis of World Order (Cambridge University Press, 2017) and Russia’s Futures (Cambridge, Polity, 2019). His book The Putin Paradox, was published by I. B. Tauris (Bloomsbury) in 2020 and his Deception: Russiagate and the New Cold War came out with Lexington Books in late 2021. He is currently working on The Lost Peace: How We Failed to Prevent a New Cold War for Yale University Press. [read more]