Go to Special Sales HBG USA Home Special Sales HBG USA

The Folly of Realism

How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine

Coming Soon
The Folly of Realism Open the full-size image

Contributors

By Alexander Vindman

Also available from:

On Sale
Feb 25, 2025
Page Count
304 pages
Publisher
PublicAffairs
ISBN-13
9781541705043

A bestselling national security expert delivers a chilling analysis of how Western indecision and apathy made possible the return of brutal Russian expansionism – with catastrophic consequences.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, six US presidential administrations of both parties pursued policies for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia that emboldened Russia, playing into its imperialist, centuries-long mythos of regional hegemony. The result: military aggression and full-scale invasion. It was all too foreseeable.
 
In The Folly of Realism, leading national security expert and bestselling author Alexander Vindman argues that America’s mistakes in Eastern Europe result from policymakers’ fixation on immediate, short-term problem-solving and misplaced hopes and fears. He proposes a new long-term, values-based approach that insists on the fundamentals of liberal democracy and a rules-based world order.
 
Enlivened by firsthand accounts and behind-the-scenes interviews with leading Washington and international policymakers and culminating in the shocking brutality of Putin’s invasions of Ukraine, the book exposes the follies of western foreign policymaking, sources of the dangerous return of Russian imperialism, and proscribes how it can be contained.


 

Genre:

Formats and Prices

Price

$30.00

Price

$40.00 CAD

Format

Format:

  1. Hardcover $30.00 $40.00 CAD
  2. ebook $18.99 $24.99 CAD
  3. Audiobook Download (Unabridged) $24.99

You May Also Like

The Plot to Destroy Democracy
The Plot to Destroy Democracy $16.99 $22.49 CAD
All the Kremlin's Men
All the Kremlin's Men $19.99 $24.99 CAD
The Red Web
The Red Web $18.99 $23.99 CAD
Winter Is Coming
Winter Is Coming $17.99 $22.99 CAD
The New India
The New India $32.00 $42.00 CAD

Alexander Vindman

About the Author

Alexander Vindman, a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, was the director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Russia on the White House’s National Security Council. Previously, he served as the Political-Military Affairs Officer for Russia for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as an attaché at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia. While on the Joint Staff, he co-authored the National Military Strategy Russia Annex and was the principal author for the Global Campaign for Russia. He is a senior fellow for the Foreign Policy Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Pritzker Military Fellow at the Lawfare Institute, executive board member for the Renew Democracy Initiative, senior advisor for VoteVets, and the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, Here, Right Matters.
 

Learn more about this author