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RUSSIA UPSIDE DOWN

Joe Weisberg

An Exit Strategy for the Second Cold War

A former CIA officer and the creator of the hit TV series The Americans makes the case that America's policy towards Russia is failing--and we'll never fix it until we rethink our relationship.

Coming of age in America in the 1970s and 80s, Joe Weisberg was a Cold Warrior. After a few years studying Russian in Leningrad, he joined the CIA in 1990--just in time to watch the Soviet Union collapse.

But less than a decade after the first Cold War ended, a new one broke out. Russia changed in many of the ways that America hoped it might--more capitalist, more religious, more open to Western ideas. But US sanctions have crippled Russia's economy; and Russia's interventions have exacerbated political problems in America. The old paradigm--America, the free capitalist good guys, fighting Russia, the repressive communist bad guys--simply doesn't apply anymore. But we've continued to act as if it does.

In this bold and controversial book, Joe Weisberg interrogates these assumptions, asking hard questions about American policy and attempting to understand what Russia truly wants. Russia Upside Down makes the case against the new Cold War. It suggests that we are fighting an enemy with whom we have few if any serious conflicts of interest. It argues that we are fighting with ineffective and dangerous tools. And most of all, it aims to demonstrate that our approach is not working.

With our own political system in peril and continually buffeted by Russian attacks, we need a new framework, urgently. Russia Upside Down shows the stakes and begins to lay out that new plan, at a time when it is badly needed.


ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Joe Weisberg is a highly successful, celebrated television writer, based in NY, best known for creating The Americans. He previously wrote a novel (An Ordinary Spy, Bloomsbury, 2007) and a young adult novel (2002). 

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Published 2021-09-28 by Public Affairs

Comments

A cogent assessment of Russia from a former CIA officer and creator of the TV show The Americans.

Coming of age in the 1970s, Weisberg was taught that the Soviet Union was communist and politically repressive and the U.S. was the opposite. Then the Soviet Union collapsed, and the new Russia embraced Christianity and capitalism but remained repressive—although less so. Relations improved but then deteriorated into what many call a second cold war. Weisberg, a levelheaded analyst, maintains that the rise of an assertive Russia under Putin convinced American leaders that the evil empire had returned. The author adds that American politicians regularly proclaim that people throughout the world yearn for democracy, although the efforts to spread it have been uniformly disastrous. To Russians, democracy arrived in the 1990s with crime, anarchy, and severe economic hardship. Taking office in 1999, Putin reasserted government authority. The stability and prosperity that followed came with significant restrictions on freedom but also made him very popular. Unlike his Soviet predecessors, Putin kept his ambitions local, but the U.S. didn’t see it that way. Though promising otherwise, the U.S. swept former satellites into NATO, reviving Soviet fears of being surrounded by enemies. Despite unedifying American policies in Cuba and Latin America, U.S. officials denounced Russian bullying of its neighbors and supported heavy economic sanctions. Readers outraged at Russian cyberattacks may be surprised to learn that America has long been doing the same. Russian historians emphasize that America was largely founded by slave owners. When they claim that America conducted a genocidal slaughter of Native peoples, Americans often respond that Stalin killed millions—not exactly evidence of moral purity on either side. Weisberg clearly knows his stuff, and while his suggestions on how to fix matters may be too sensible to appeal to patriots from either nation, readers will have no doubt that our current approach is not working.

Perceptive insights into a consistently dysfunctional international relationship.


Review Issue Date: August 15, 2021

Online Publish Date: July 18, 2021

Publisher:PublicAffairs

Pages: 352

Price ( Hardcover ): $30.00

Publication Date: September 28, 2021

ISBN ( Hardcover ): 978-1-5417-6862-8

Section: NonFiction