What books, articles, or blogs have you read that provide interesting perspectives on Russia and its relation to the current international order, especially as regards United States or the War in Ukraine?There seem to be two primary flavors in American interpretations of the conflict:(1) Putin invaded Ukraine out of imperialistic ambition, and we must continue to arm and support Ukraine not only out of a moral imperative in upholding Ukraine's sovereignty and global democracy (which we should seek to spread), but because otherwise appeasing Putin would encourage further violations of international law and national sovereignty, or(2) Putin's invasion of Ukraine is understandable as a rational reaction to the West's continued expansion of NATO, as well as to various but relatively consistent indications of bad faith or duplicity in the West's (particular America's) actions towards Russia and internationally. In order to quell Russia's fears and reduce the risk expanded (or especially nuclear) conflict, we should advocate for a peaceful settlement that is likely to be very favorable to Russia (aka accept some Russian war aims). I just finished Not One Inch by M.E. Sarotte, which essentially argues for point (2), though it was published just prior to the invasion. Solid book; it's well sourced and well argued. It's difficult to deny that Russia has ample reason to distrust the West, but ultimately it's also difficult to believe that Russia would be some bastion of democracy, or even a functional one, had different steps been taken following the fall of the USSR. Early elections in 1993 and 1995 turned out big wins for an extreme far-right white-supremacist party on one hand, and a communist restoration party on the other. Russia has never had a functional democracy in its history. You guys read anything cool lately?
>>23628766Okay so now jannies are going to ban philosophy threads because they refer to the philosopher's whole corpus of work rather than a particular book and leave thinly veiled /pol/shit threads which devolve into debates among /pol/tards within 5 posts like this one hanging because faggot OP uploaded a photo of a book he in all likelihood didn't even read?
>>23628784This is the third post I've made on the thread in about a week, the last one actually went pretty well. Feel free to take a position retard.What thread did they delete that you're talking about? As we all know, /lit/-posters are clearly well-read enough to discuss a philosopher's entire corpus
>>23628798Third thread on the book*
>>23628766It isn’t a binary choice. Most people hate Russia and consider its current state Fascist but pretty much any Z supporter in the west supports them in this because they don’t want more color revolutions to turn Eastern Europe into another mid-east situation.
>>23628766>You guys read anything cool lately? Look at the book by Michael McFaul. Forget what it's called but McFaul was the architect of Obama's Russia policy and his senior Russia guy. Also ambassador for a couple years. Hates Putin to the point of irrationality, and he's very idealistic, but he has a first person account of relations for the Obama years and a solid account of the post Soviet period before that.
Bump
>not one inch that's what women say when I ask them if they want to have sex with me
>>23628766I recommended Vladimir Pozner in one of your other threads, but he has said he thinks a Marshall Plan-type thing in the 90s might have helped in a focused and targeted way. But he also made the point that Russia has never been a democratic country at all, ever, and while I don't if it's impossible, it takes some time for a new system to evolve. You can't change them from the outside, that change has to come from people within the country who grow up in the new system and have a different mindset. The people who are running Russia are all Soviets. The system changed, but these people haven't changed (and won't change) because they grew up in that old system and that shapes their whole outlook, but now they're in a new system and are trying to run it with the mindset of an old system. That doesn't work very well. The young people today will change the country in the future and years down the line in some way, and maybe not in a way that Westerners even like, but either way it'll be different.Also, Russia has become more authoritarian during the war, but just a few years ago, it was no comparison to China. It's no question that China is a totalitarian system in comparison to Russia which allowed opposition newspapers to exist (although they had a relatively small audience compared to the overwhelming majority who get their news from pro-Putin T.V. channels).He also believes that a lot of Russians interpreted the fall of the USSR as them *succeeding* at getting rid of communism. It's like, hey! We did it! Now we can join you guys... and they were blocked from joining the West, and they have a lot of pride so their reaction to what happened over the following years was like WTF... and then they started getting angry. And Putin's government has tapped into this, but a lot of Russians support him because they feel like he's given them their pride back. One of the unfortunate things is there is far more grassroots anti-Americanism now (which is also encouraged by state media) which is much worse than in the USSR. That might be surprising but in the Soviet times, communist state media made more of an attempt to separate the American government (and Wall Street, which figured a lot in communist propaganda) from the American people. Putin has also brought in the Russian Orthodox Church which is very chauvinist, nationalistic, self-centered, and anti-Western in a more all-around way.There is also real fear that Crimea would become a base for the U.S. Sixth Fleet. Russians overwhelmingly considered Crimea to be part of Russia, which it was... I would let them keep it. Fundamentally, though, wars don't happen because one side made all the mistakes and the other side is pure. Russia has made a lot of mistakes that has contributed to a large number of Ukrainians wanting to cut the umbilical cord with Mother Russia. I think the invasion of Ukraine that began in 2022 is criminal and imperialistic.
Honestly, the single most interesting take I’ve seen on Russia comes from Spengler in DotW and his various essays.
>>23628766>(1) we must continue to arm and support Ukraine ... because otherwise appeasing Putin would encourage further violations of international law and national sovereigntyI'm not sure about this one. I've heard that people say we've gotta arm Ukraine otherwise Poland will fall. But I find that one hard to believe. It seems almost like a civil war within a cracked-up USSR akin to Yugoslavia in the 90s where suddenly there were Serbs living in Bosnia and Croatia, and not only were those Serb populations fearing being cleansed, there were also a fair share of Serb nationalists who sought a greater Serbia with local Serb forces in Bosnia taking up arms and making moves, and then being backed up by the regular Serb army which intervened.Russia, Belarus and Ukraine... the idea after the USSR fell apart among many Russians is that they were all bros in the same group. The languages are similar. There's the same religion (Orthodoxy). So Ukraine trying to cut that connection and join the West is another WTF... it's like my little bro doesn't want to be my little bro anymore.War also has a way of accelerating things. So a Ukrainian national identity becomes much sharper in contrast to Russia. People tattooing themselves, or making art with traditional folk patterns or instruments. There's an accelerating abandonment of the Russian language (including by Zelensky who is a native Russian speaker). I don't think that was Putin's intention but that what seems to be happening. Nations are formed in war and we might be seeing the formation of the Ukrainian nation in a crucible:https://youtu.be/5gdPxnwKYjM
>>23629960Yeah I watched that interview with Pozner, it was great. For me the most worrying development is the deterioration of Russian civilians' attitudes towards the United States. It seems like there are too many fundamental differences between Russia and the United States as they exist today for rapprochement, so the obvious candidate in the longer-term for improvement of relations would be changes in government. But if the Russian people in general are starting to dislike Americans and America together, I don't like its prospects.The book I mention in the OP covers very well a wide range of issues that made Russia feel shunned by the West following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. Both Gorbachev and Yeltsin seemed willing to work it out, but whether that was out of weakness or a genuine desire to change is unclear. Either way, missed opportunity. Putin seems much less hopeful in this regard, and Medvedev has probably only gone the wrong way since 2014. I'm reading that book recommended by >>23629081 right now (From Cold War to Hot Peace) and it's amazing. Seems like Obama had a genuine desire for improvement, but between important missteps (Libya), leftover resentment from the Bush era, and the mismatch between each party's expectations and assessments, the whole "reset" policy was doomed for failure. One thing I think interesting that hasn't been brought up when people talk about America's dealing with other nations in the post-Soviet era, is that Russia really is in a unique situation in regards to its military strength and willpower to resist efforts at "Westernization." The bit about the NGOs was fascinating to me, and reminds me about a quote I read somewhere along the lines of an NGO leader saying, "A lot of what the CIA was doing covertly thirty years ago, we do openly today."
There is a channel where an expert on IR and PoliSci translates primary sources on current Russian politics and speeches.He also has his own lectures on the topic.https://youtube.com/@michaelrossipolisci?feature=shared
>>23631194That's a good source, thanks anon
>>23631194is he pozzed?
>>23629081Michael McFaul was an awful choice for ambassador, and his policy was an unmitigated failure. The only Russia "win" that wouldn't have happened otherwise was American military access to Afghanistan through Russia. START would've happened anyway, and so would some resolution of the Iran nuclear question.McFaul's policy (and his personal fanatical idealism) directly contributed to the subsequent decline in US-Russia relations. How could Putin not see American subversion in the Arab Spring or Euromaidan considering the omnipresence of American-funded, democracy-advocating NGOs? It doesn't matter if it's nonpartisan, promising poor people that the grass is greener and that America cares IS destabilizing. Especially when duplicity was so easy to see in the Libyan intervention, or Obama imploring Mubarak to step down, or unilateral American sanctions on Iran (including kicking them out of SWIFT) following a long and hard-fought diplomatically-achieved UNSCR 1929, or McFaul's appointment to the embassy in Moscow? George Kennan is rolling over in his grave.
>>23628766Oh, the same thread by Russian shill again. This is so tiresome.
>>23632810Oh look, the same retard that thinks anything remotely critical of America's foreign policy must be a Russian shill. God knows it's been so successful since 9/11. I especially like how you don't interact with any point made and don't bother to offer one yourself.One of the worst parts about Russia's anti-American propaganda campaigns has been it's efficiency at poisoning the well of discussion about anything political, especially stuff about Russia. Second only to reducing this website to garbageGrow up and eat shit faggot
>>23628784>philosophyHas always been in service of the political order of the day.
