Hubris

On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukraine conflict that began eight years earlier. But the roots of the conflict began long before that historic date.

After the fall of communism, politicians, professors and the public thought that democracy would spread to Eastern Europe and that these countries would share European values and beliefs. The EU, NATO and a host of NGOs set about encouraging this glorious future, expanding membership of the great institutions. The failure to achieve this is one of the most ironic aspects of the story of Western ambition since the end of the Cold War. And all concerned underestimated the effect on Russia.

Especially the expansion of NATO. The Russian elite firmly believed that the US and Germany had promised them that NATO would not be extended to include the countries of the former Soviet bloc. Instead, in a stumbling progress witheringly described by Jonathan Haslam, successive American presidents distracted by domestic concerns found themselves going along with the absorption of Poland, the Czech republic and all the rest into the Western military alliance. They did not understand or care enough about the effects on Russia. The fledgling Russian democracy broke down and Vladimir Putin's personal dictatorship flourished, enhanced by the most corrupt form of oligarchic capitalism. This occurred while Russia was painfully isolated, removed from the larger institutions and communities that offered status and security.

Every condescending reminder that Russia was a Power of the second rank exacerbated a grievous sense of loss. And the direct heirs of that state – whether in the fighting services, the secret intelligence services or the diplomatic service – suffered humiliation and innumerable slights: constant reminders of the indignity of their country’s sudden impoverishment and impotence.

This story, of European pride and pathological Russian resentment, is what lies behind the war in Ukraine. In Hubris, Jonathan Haslam, one of the world’s greatest experts on Russian foreign policy and espionage, examines with chilling realism and caustic wit one of the most intractable issues of our time.