{"product_id":"putins-wars-9781442253582","title":"Putins Wars","description":"\u003cb\u003eBook Synopsis\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eThis fully updated book offers the first systematic analysis of Putinâs three wars, placing the Second Chechen War, the war with Georgia of 2008, and the war with Ukraine of 2014â2015 in their broader historical context. Readable and clearly argued, this study is essential for understanding the dynamics of Putinâs regime.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTrade Review\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is amazing that a book published in February could so accurately predict the way the war in Ukraine has unfolded in the half year since. * San Francisco Review of Books *\u003cbr\u003eMarcel Van Herpen's warnings of a new Russian empire in the making became reality in early 2014 just after the publication of the first edition of this book, when Vladimir Putin organized a clandestine takeover of the Crimea, while likewise secretly backing separatist movements in the eastern Ukraine. Putin's Wars argues incisively that Russian actions are primarily offensive and driven by domestic factors in the quest to rebuild a new Russian empire after Soviet collapse, rather than primarily defensive, and driven in response to external factors such as the uncoordinated NATO and European Union enlargements. Whether or not one sees the new Russian imperialism as essentially offensive or defensive, the book raises thought-provoking questions as to how the United States and Europe should best respond to Russian pan-nationalist militancy and Putin's quest to forge a Eurasian alliance. -- Hall Gardner, author of Crimea, Global Rivalry, and the Vengeance of History\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eTable of Contents\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eAuthor Note and Acknowledgments  Glossary and Abbreviations Preface to the Second Edition  Introduction  –Russia: A Post-Imperium?  –Structure of the Book  –Notes   Part I: Russia and the Curse of Empire  Chapter One: Despotism and the Quest for Empire  –Montesquieu, Rousseau, and Diderot: Early Critics of Russian Despotism  –How Lost Wars Led to Short-Lived Reforms  –The High Expectations of 1989  –The Four Roots of Russian Imperialism  –Russian Despotism and Russian Imperialism: Inseparable Twin Brothers?  –Notes  Chapter Two: Comparing Western and Russian Legitimation Theories for Empire  –Imperialist Legitimation Theories: Christianity, a Superior Civilization, and the White Man’s Burden  –Social Darwinism: The Primacy of Naked Power  –Three Russian Legitimation Theories for Imperial Expansion: Orthodoxy, Pan Slavism, and Communism  –The Symbiosis of Church and State  –A New Legitimation Theory: Pan Slavism  –From Pan Slavism to Racism: Pogroms and Anti-Semitism  –How the Russian Revolution Forged a New Legitimation Theory for Imperialist Expansion  –Notes  Chapter Three: Putin and the End of Russian “Empire Fatigue”  –Empire Fatigue: A Chance of Becoming a “Normal State”?  –Handling Post-Imperial Pain  –Two Reactions to the Loss of Empire: To Accept or Not To Accept  –Pitirim Sorokin and the Eternal Cycle of Ideologies in Revolutions  –The Use of Nationalist Propaganda by the Leadership  –In Search of a New Legitimation Theory for a Post-Soviet Empire  –A New Ideological Triad: Orthodoxy, the Power Vertical, Sovereign Democracy  –Notes  Chapter Four: Putin’s Grand Design  –Back to the USSR? From Commonwealth to the Russia- Belarus Union State  –A Politically Inspired Customs Union  –The CSTO: A Mini-Warsaw Pact?  –The Shanghai Cooperation Organization: A Double-Edged Sword?  –BRIC, BIC, BRICS, or BRIICS?  –Notes  Chapter Five: The Eurasian Union: Putin’s Newest Imperial Project  –Precursors of the Eurasian Project: Igor Panarin and Aleksandr Dugin  –Fear of Loss of Sovereignty  –Eurasian Union Versus European Union  –The Ultimate Goal: The Creation of a “Big Country”  –Expansionism Even Beyond Former Soviet Frontiers?  –The Eurasian Union as the Ultimate Integration Effort –Bringing Ukraine Back into the Russian Orbit  –Notes   Part II: The “Internal War”  Chapter Six: Russia as a “Pluralist” One-Party State –A One-Party State with Four Parties?  –East German Communist “Pluralism”: A Model for Putin?  –The Use of Fake Political Parties  –Unequalled Election Fraud  –Mikhail Prokhorov’s Revolt against the Kremlin “Puppeteers” –Another Pseudo-Pluralism: The Diarchy at the Top  –Notes  Chapter Seven: Preaching the Ultranationalist Gospel: The Transformation of “United Russia” –The Ultranationalism and Revisionism of the Communist Party  –“Unkulturaufstieg”: The Spread of Ultranationalist Ideas  –Putin’s “State of the Union”: Touting Patriotism  –Putin’s “Russian Idea”: State, State, and More State  –National Rebirth and Consensus Building  –United Russia’s Electoral Success: A CPSU Effect?  –The Bear Wants to Fly: How United Russia Got Different Party Wings  –United Russia’s New Ultranationalist Course  –Russia’s Frontiers “Are Not Eternal”  –Russia’s Rebirth  –Notes  Chapter Eight: The Nashi: Fascist Blackshirts or a New Komsomol?  –“Walking Together”: Skinheads to Defend the Kremlin’s Message  –Founding the Nashi: A Kremlin Initiative  –“Patriotic Training” in Nashi Summer Camps  –The Nashi Manifesto and “Megaproject Russia”  –Harassing Diplomats and Internal Foes  –Cyber Attacks  –Preparing for More Muscled Actions: The Nashi Battle Groups  –Orthodox Battle Groups?  –A Historical Precedent: Khrushchev’s Druzhiny  –The Nashi: Komsomol, Red Guards, or Hitlerjugend?  –Notes  Chapter Nine: Send in the Cossacks  –The Rehabilitation of the Cossacks  –Touting “Cossack Values”  –The Role of the Cossacks in Post-Soviet Local Wars  –Cossacks Patrolling the Streets  –A New Praetorian Guard?  –A Cossack Political Party  –Notes   Part III: The Wheels of War Chapter Ten: Three Lost Wars: From Afghanistan to the First Chechen War  –The Cold War: Containment Versus Expansionism  –The War in Afghanistan: Andropov’s War?  –The First Chechen War: Four Differences with Former Wars  –The First Chechen War: Yeltsin’s War  –Chechnya: Russia’s Whipping Boy  –A Genocide?  –Notes  Chapter Eleven: The Mysterious Apartment Bombings: Detonator of the Second Chechen War  –The Detonator: A Secret War against the Russian Population?  –Panic in the Family  –A Real or Constructed Casus Belli? The Alleged Chechen Attack on Dagestan  –Storm in Moscow  –A Strange “Exercise” by the FSB  –Foresight or Leaked Information?  –The Duma Investigation Commission  –Yeltsin on the Apartment Bombings  –Notes Chapter Twelve: The Second Chechen War: Putin’s War  –Bombardments: The Massive Slaughter  –Kontraktniki: The Criminal Volunteers  –Zachistki: The Purges  –Filtration Points: Hiding Torture  –Forced Disappearances and Blowing Up Dead Bodies  –The Process of Chechenization  –The War in Chechnya and the European Court of Human Rights  –A Genocide?  –Notes  Chapter Thirteen: The War with Georgia, Part I: A Premeditated Russian Aggression  –A Five-Day War?  –The Russian-Georgian Cold War: The Passport Offensive  –The Lukewarm War: Russian Provocations and Preparations for War  –The Hot War: August 7–12, 2008  –Notes  Chapter Fourteen: The War with Georgia, Part II: Six Events Announcing the Kremlin’s Preparation for War  –A Slow-Motion Annexation?  –The Central Question: Did Russian Troops Enter South Ossetia Before the War?  –Notes  Chapter Fifteen: The War with Georgia, Part III: The Propaganda War  –Russia Accuses Georgia of Genocide  –Ethnic Cleansing and Cluster Bombs  –Does a Lie Told Often Enough Become a Truth? The Victim as Aggressor  –The Real Reasons for Moscow’s Land Grab  –Notes  Chapter Sixteen: Origins of the War in Ukraine  –The Kremlin’s Obsession with Ukraine  –Post-Modern Europe: The Hubris of a Weak Continent  –Political Mistakes by Leading European Politicians  –Barack Obama’s Ill-Conceived Russia Policy  –Consequences of the Ukrainian Crisis for Poland and Other New NATO Member States  –Notes  Chapter Seventeen: Russia’s “Hybrid War” in Ukraine: Five Scenarios  –Putin’s Strategic Goals  –Putin’s “Hybrid War”  –What Will Happen Next? Five Scenarios  –Putin’s Strategy: A Matryoshka Model?  –Notes  Chapter Eighteen: Conclusion  –The Crucial Year 1997  Notes  Bibliography  About the Author","brand":"Rowman \u0026 Littlefield Publishers","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51039948898647,"sku":"9781442253582","price":31.5,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0817\/1739\/5799\/files\/9781442253582.jpg?v=1750945331","url":"https:\/\/bookcurl.com\/products\/putins-wars-9781442253582","provider":"Book Curl","version":"1.0","type":"link"}