Case report
Lucas, Edward: The New Cold War – Putin’s Russia and the Threat to the West, Pelgrawe Macmillan, New York, 2008.
Sandro Knezović
; Institute for International Relations, IMO, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The book The New Cold War – Putin’s Russia and the Threat to the West may be regarded as a very interesting attempt of well informed author to present contemporary Russia to a wider, mainly western public. Edward Lucas starts from the assumption that average people in the West, including members of political elites, find it very difficult to understand what today’s Russia really represents in international arena, what are the ideas behind the attitude it shows, as well as its potentials and limitation of capabilities with reference to relations with the West. Therefore already in the introduction he tries to describe how Russia became what it is today and defines the main thesis of this text, clearly highlighted in the title – the New Cold War, explaining its similarities with the synonym from the communist times, as well as the main differences between the two. Regardless of the fact whether a reader would agree with arguments presented in this book, or even with the methodology used in it, it is more than clear that it represents a very informative and revealing piece on very interesting subject – Russia in the new strategic environment - that should not be underestimated in the international relations in periods to come.
Keywords
Contemporary Russia; New Cold War; Russian influence; strategic environment; Putin
Hrčak ID:
58791
URI
Publication date:
15.3.2009.
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