COLLISIONS

The background to one of the most dangerous geopolitical clashes of the post–Cold War era.

Kimmage, a history professor and author of Abandonment of the West, admits that he is not an expert on Ukraine. As a scholar in political science, however, he provides well-informed and realistic, if bleak, context for current events. Russia’s 2022 invasion, writes the author, marked the end of “three of the most peaceful, most promising, most prosperous decades in European history.” Upon Ukrainian independence in 1991, U.S. officials treated the new nation lazily, overpromising (dangling but refusing NATO membership in 2008) and then refusing to arm it after Russia’s takeover of Crimea in 2014. With no nostalgia for communism but yearning (along with most Russians) to make his nation powerful again on the global stage, Putin noted that NATO had also declined to admit Georgia in 2008. A few months later, his army invaded Georgia, and America and its NATO allies expressed outrage but took no action. In 2014, the Russian army occupied Crimea and other areas in eastern Ukraine. Most Russians were pleased, while the U.S. and other powers expressed outrage and imposed sanctions but failed to take real action. Putin regularly proclaims that the U.S. is an empire in decline. Kimmage admits that this is a reasonable impression, observing that 21st-century America has stumbled badly through two stalemated wars, a depression, and a disastrous presidency. Having triumphed in two earlier wars, Putin had no doubt he was on a roll, but matters did not work out so well in his third. In a fitting conclusion to his well-researched book, the author expresses mild approval of Biden’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but he knows too much history to predict a satisfying outcome.

Political maneuvering rarely begets a page-turner, but Kimmage’s insightful account is just that.