After the collapse of the Soviet Union, six US presidential administrations of both parties pursued policies for Russia, Ukraine, and Eurasia that wound up emboldening Russia, playing into its imperialist mythos of regional hegemony. Our guest today argues that the result of these policies was all too foreseeable.
In his latest book, The Folly of Realism: How the West Deceived Itself About Russia and Betrayed Ukraine, leading national security expert Alexander Vindman makes the case that America’s mistakes in Eastern Europe result from policymakers’ fixation on short-term problem-solving and misplaced hopes and fears. Vindman proposes a new long-term, values-based approach that prioritizes the fundamentals of liberal democracy and a rules-based world order.
Alexander Vindman, lieutenant colonel US Army (retired), was the director for European Affairs on the White House’s National Security Council, former Political-Military Affairs Officer for Russia, and diplomat at the American Embassies in Moscow and Kyiv. He is a senior fellow at the Foreign Policy Institute, the author of the New York Times–bestselling memoir Here, Right Matters, and leads the Here Right Matters Foundation organization which focuses on helping Ukraine win the war against Russia.
