PUTIN’S WORLD

Russia Against the West and With the Rest

By Angela E. Stent

Russia has always been important to American diplomats, but rarely has it troubled civilians as much as it does now. The precise extent of the Kremlin’s intervention in the 2016 presidential election remains disputed, but few would deny that its foreign policy has more influence on domestic American affairs than ever before, or that understanding that policy is an urgent priority.

Angela E. Stent has written “Putin’s World” to meet that need. Stent is a director of the Center for Eurasian, Russian and East European Studies and a professor at Georgetown University, and she has sought to put President Vladimir Putin’s difficulties with Western countries into perspective. Her subtitle — “Russia Against the West and With the Rest” — reflects the fact that many nations do not share the Americans’ distaste for Russia’s approach.

The book is divided into sections analyzing Russia’s relations with its major partners and adversaries — Germany, NATO, the former Soviet countries, China, Japan, the various Middle East regimes and the United States — all within a broader framing that examines Russian foreign policy from imperial times up to now. Stent’s key concept is that Russian policy has been consistent for centuries.

There is a very interesting discussion to be had about the differences between the United States’ and Russian approaches to foreign policy in various parts of the world, particularly insofar as they highlight the shortcomings of each. As Stent points out, there are surprisingly few stakeholders in the bilateral relationship, since trade between the two nuclear superpowers is low. This means that the personal ties between the rulers of the Kremlin and the officials in the White House are unusually significant, for good or ill. President Barack Obama sent an outspoken supporter of democratic transformation to Moscow as ambassador, something it’s hard to imagine any president doing with China or Saudi Arabia. Similarly, Putin regularly taunts Washington in a way he doesn’t with more economically significant partners.