Book Talk – Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine
As the Ukraine War heads into its third year, it is clear that the grinding military battle has not resulted in a clear path to victory for either side, despite all efforts — including billions of dollars of weapons and aid — by the West to destroy the Russian presence there and even the Putin leadership back in Moscow. For many in Western capitals, the media, and especially the Washington establishment, this should have been a clearcut case of an invader and violator of sovereignty and democracy denying conquest.
But history has a tendency to complicate things, and as journalist Scott Horton writes in painstaking detail, that this is not just a story of Russian revanchism, but the apotheosis of decades of American policy to diminish and isolate the former Soviet Union for the benefit of its own empire. In Provoked: How Washington started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine (2024), Horton unearths the building blocks of the crisis, beginning with President H.W. Bush and leading right into the twilight of the Biden Administration.
Kelley Vlahos, Editorial Director of Responsible Statecraft, spoke with the author.
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Scott Horton
Scott Horton is director of the Libertarian Institute, editorial director of Antiwar.com, host of Antiwar Radio on Pacifica, 90.7 FM KPFK in Los Angeles, California and podcasts the Scott Horton Show from ScottHorton.org. He is the author of the 2024 book, "Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War With Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine." He is also the author of the 2021 book, "Enough Already: Time to End the War on Terrorism", and the 2017 book, "Fool’s Errand: Time to End the War in Afghanistan", He edited the 2019 book, "The Great Ron Paul: The Scott Horton Show Interviews 2004–2019", and the 2022 book, "Hotter Than the Sun: Time to Abolish Nuclear Weapons". Horton has conducted more than 6,000 interviews since 2003.
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos
Kelley Beaucar Vlahos is a senior advisor at the Quincy Institute and editorial director of its online magazine, Responsible Statecraft. Previously she served as executive editor managing editor, and longtime foreign policy/national security writer at the American Conservative magazine. She also spent 15 years as an online political reporter for Fox News.