Roots of Russia's War in Ukraine

March 15, 2016

This short anthology of four articles concerning Russia's annexation of Crimea and involvement in eastern Ukraine provides valuable context for President Vladimir Putin's foreign policy. Unlike other works that chronicle recent Russian involvement in Ukraine, this book from coauthors Wood (history, Massachusetts Inst. of Technology; Performing Justice), William E. Pomeranz (deputy director, Kennan Inst., Woodrow Wilson Ctr.), E. Wayne Merry (senior fellow for Europe and Eurasia, American Foreign Policy Council), and Maxim Trudolyubov (editor at large, Vedomosti) offers deeper and more lasting sources of Putin's thought and action. The accounts range from conflicting European and Russian concepts of international relations to profound interpretations of Russian political culture. For example, Wood detects a recent, seismic shift to an "all out conservatism as [Putin's] central ideology." The latter appears to be related to a persisting fear of the potential spreading "disorder" of Ukraine's Maidan demonstrations and threatening "foreign values." In itself such an explanation seems less exceptional than in combination with other themes, including the commercial consequences for Russia of Ukraine's closer association with the EU. These descriptions leave a somewhat overdetermined character to Russian policy, but they also indicate a broader policy shift unlikely to be altered through diplomacy. VERDICT A solid entry that nicely complements earlier books on Russia's Ukrainian involvement, such as Rajan Menon and Eugene Rumer's Conflict in Ukraine.--Zachary Irwin, Behrend Coll., Pennsylvania State Erie

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