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Title: Failed Crusade: America and the Tragedy of Post-Communist Russia, Updated Edition by Stephen F. Cohen ISBN: 0-393-32226-2 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: 22 October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4 (11 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Thoughtful book, wrong hypothesis
Comment: Mr. Cohen in his sharp and insightful book argues that American overenthusiastic attitude in the 1990's actually weakened Russian camp of liberal reformers. Russian reforms stalled and the danger of nuclear proliferation increased because of American policy of the unconditional support of Boris Yelstin's regime. Crusade failed. However, for me the question is - was it a Crusade? To my point of view Mr. Cohen spends too much time citing himself instead of analyzing the realities of the US policy vis-à-vis Russia in the 90's. And these realities were created by people; and mostly by three powerful American policy makers: M. Albright, J. Helms and B. Clinton. Lets do a quick reality check.
Powerful Secretary of State in the 90's, Madeline Albright was the most likely crusader out of three. Straightforward and hawkish, she was suspicious of any regime that didn't have a hallmark of American market democracy. However her crusade was siphoned out (luckily for Russia) to the Balkans. That was partially because of her personal attachments to the region. Escaping Nazis, as a daughter of the Jewish refugees from Czechoslovakia, Madeline Korbel for some time found home in Belgrade, capital of Serbia.
Jesse Helms was a chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and a sponsor of legislation that tightened the American embargo against Cuba and withheld US dues to the United Nations. Mr. Cohen didn't even mention him in the book, but Mr. Helms was one of the most prominent figures in American foreign policy in the 90's. Actually Ms. Albright was not only Mr. Helms' personal friend and a soul mate, but also pretty much his protégée for the Secretary of State position, as she was a Clinton's choice. A man of integrity, Mr. Helms however was a conservative Cold War "warrior", who didn't trust anybody (besides probably North Carolina farmers), let along Russia. Isolationist who kept blocking dispatching of the American troops, he was an unlikely supporter of any crusade.
Bill Clinton despite his friendship with "Tsar" Boris and few good laughs together didn't trust Russia either. Educated in Georgetown University he used to be fascinated by the lectures of the late professor Carroll Quigley. Irish Catholic from Boston and a genius, Mr. Quigley was very suspicious of Anglo-American Establishment, but every bit as much conservative. His main idea about Russia (unfortunately erroneous one) was that Russia is a separate and alien civilization, Russian "Orthodox" Civilization. He borrowed, but modified the ideas of Arnold J. Toynbee who thought that Russia was just a branch of the Western Christian Civilization.
Ironically, with new Bush administration in the office Christian tradition may have found a new role to play in the relationship between two countries. Most ethnic Russians are Christians and that may be one single fact that brings Russia closer to the White House. However lets not forget the sad lessons of the history. Sacking of the Christian Constantinople by the Forth Crusade (and the fellow Christians) in 1204 arguably contributed to the eventual demise of the Christian Byzantium and conquest of the Byzantine Empire by the Muslim Ottoman Turks. Started out as a grand enterprise with a moral dimension the medieval crusade ran out of steam and ended up being pure conquest and looting. To tell you the truth, I am awfully glad that the 1990's Russia Crusade has failed if ever happened. May be we finally learned something from the sad story called history.
Rating: 4
Summary: A Russia specialist fights back
Comment: "Failed Crusade" is a sharply-observed critique of American foreign policy towards post-Soviet Russia. Cohen, and many other Russia specialists like him, are justifiably angry. After all, their advice regarding the best way to ensure a successful transition to democracy and a market economy was largely ignored by Western policymakers, who instead favoured the "transitologists" who thought they knew all about transitions from authoritarian rule based on the experience of Latin America and Southern Europe. For economic advice, they turned to the neoliberal evangelists of the so-called Harvard School. They believed that initial conditions counted for nothing, and that Thatcherite economic policies would soon put Russia on the road to prosperity.
Nowadays all of us - from America's Republicans to Russia's Communists - concur that the last 10 years have marked a "transition" to near-total collapse, poverty and anarchy. This provides the opportunity for Cohen and his long-serving colleagues in the field of Russia studies to hit back, and say "I told you so".
This book sets out to do just that. Cohen seeks to demonstrate that he was right all along, partly by citing entire articles written by him over the last 10 years. Indeed, he can claim quite justifiably that he was largely right on the mark, and even his earlier articles stand the test of time.
However, I have a few minor quibbles with this otherwise fine book. For a start, it gets tiresome to read all these articles, since they tend to include whole passages which have already been used in an earlier article. There's nothing wrong with a writer quoting himself, unless later on in life he's going to draw his articles together into a book and not bother editing out the repetitions. The motif that I grew most annoyed by was the constant mention of Russia's nuclear arsenal as the single most important reason why we can't let the country go down the drain. As if a Russia without nuclear weapons could go to hell.
Still, this is a worthy addition to the recent batch of hand-wringing books on Russia. Let's hope that in this new century Russia will stop having to endure all the stupid experiments it endured in the Twentieth.
Rating: 5
Summary: the best and a must read on post-communist Russia
Comment: Part I of the book is pure gem - every word is true about Russia, about the American crusaders, about what's wrong and who is to blame. all the more amazing when you get to Part II, and realize that Dr Cohen has been giving the warnings as early as the early 1990s and on. Unfortunately his sage advice has not been and is not heeded to -- just witness the latest crusade in Iraq. The only post-socialist transitions that have done well are the ones that did not bother to listen American advisers. Imposition of foreign systems amd values, however valid in another national setting, is bound to fail because of the mismatch with local realities and traditions. How can the American crusaders so quickly forget the fate of Marxism - another wise theory and model imported from abroad and imposed on all countries that became "communist."
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Title: From Nyet to Da: Understanding the Russians (Interact Series) by Yale Richmond ISBN: 1877864161 Publisher: Intercultural Press Pub. Date: January, 2003 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Putin's Russia by Lilia Shevtsova ISBN: 0870032011 Publisher: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace Pub. Date: February, 2004 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: Tragedy of Russia's Reforms: Market Bolshevism Against Democracy by Peter Reddaway, Dmitri Glinski ISBN: 1929223064 Publisher: United States Institute of Peace Pub. Date: 01 January, 2001 List Price(USD): $29.95 |
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Title: Russia's Unfinished Revolution: Political Change from Gorbachev to Putin by Michael McFaul ISBN: 0801488141 Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 2002 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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Title: The Logic of Economic Reform in Russia by Jerry F. Hough, Michael H. Armacost ISBN: 081573753X Publisher: The Brookings Institution Pub. Date: August, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
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