Russia Upside Down

 

 

But less than a decade after the first Cold War ended, a new one broke out. Russia changed in many of the ways that America hoped it might–more capitalist, more religious, more open to Western ideas. But US sanctions have crippled Russia’s economy; and Russia’s interventions have exacerbated political problems in America. The old paradigm–America, the free capitalist good guys, fighting Russia, the repressive communist bad guys–simply doesn’t apply anymore. But we’ve continued to act as if it does.

 

In this bold and controversial book, Joe Weisberg interrogates these assumptions, asking hard questions about American policy and attempting to understand what Russia truly wants. Russia Upside Down makes the case against the new Cold War. It suggests that we are fighting an enemy with whom we have few if any serious conflicts of interest. It argues that we are fighting with ineffective and dangerous tools. And most of all, it aims to demonstrate that our approach is not working.

 

With our own political system in peril and continually buffeted by Russian attacks, we need a new framework, urgently. Russia Upside Down shows the stakes and begins to lay out that new plan, at a time when it is badly needed.