Power and Purpose. U.S. Policy Toward Russia After the Cold War

Russia, once seen as America’s greatest adversary, is now viewed by the United States as a potential partner. This book traces the evolution of American foreign policy toward the Soviet Union, and later Russia, during the tumultuous and uncertain period following the end of the cold war. It examines how American policymakers—particularly in the executive branch—coped with the opportunities and challenges presented by the new Russia.

Drawing on extensive interviews with senior U.S. and Russian officials, the authors explain George H. W. Bush’s response to the dramatic coup of August 1991 and the Soviet breakup several months later, examine Bill Clinton’s efforts to assist Russia’s transformation and integration, and analyze George W. Bush’s policy toward Russia as September 11 and the war in Iraq transformed international politics. Throughout, the book focuses on the benefits and perils of America’s efforts to promote democracy and markets in Russia as well as reorient Russia fr om security threat to security ally.

Understanding how three U.S. administrations dealt with these critical policy questions is vital in assessing not only America’s Russia policy, but also efforts that might help to transform and integrate other former adversaries in the future.

James M. Goldgeier is director of the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University, where he is associate professor of political science and international affairs. He is also an adjunct senior fellow in Europe studies at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Michael McFaul is the Peter and Helen Bing Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution. He is also an associate professor of political science at Stanford University and a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. He is the author of Russia's Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin(Carnegie, 2001).

Reviews

“If there is one book to read on what shaped American policy toward the Soviet Union in its last years and Russia throughout the last decade, this is it. It offers more than a narrative; it offers an explanation within a very useful conceptual framework. It understands that policy is not made either in a vacuum or by simple bureaucratic imperatives. It is the product of ideas and real people who embrace those ideas. The pull between those who believed we could and should transform Russia and those who focused principally on the security dimensions of the relationship has, to differing degrees, shaped the policies of the first Bush, Clinton, and current Bush administrations. That reality, and the lessons to be learned from it, are thoroughly explored in this superb book.” -
Ambassador Dennis B. Ross