To Run the World

Sergey Radchenko is the Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is a historian of the Cold War, and an expert on Russian and Chinese foreign and security policies. Previous publications include Two Suns in the Heavens: the Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy and Unwanted Visionaries: the Soviet Failure in Asia.

• Introduction; Part I. Ambition: 1. The Postwar; 2. The parting of ways; 3. Stalin in Europe; 4. Stalin in Asia; Part II. Hubris: 5. Love Us As We Are; 6. The Golden Hoop; 7. The Twin Crises; 8. Killing Flies; 9. Camp David; 10. Berlin; 11. Cuba; Part III. Decline: 12. Vietnam; 13. Detente; 14. Yom Kippur; 15. Decline; 16. Tensions Mount; 17. The Final Nail; Part IV. Collapse: 18. Fear; 19. Hope; 20. Collapse; Conclusion.

'The historiography of the Cold War was once too narrowly focused on two superpowers. More recently, it has become blurred by overemphasis on minor players. Sergey Radchenko's To Run the World brilliantly reconciles the two literatures. Using hitherto unavailable Russian and Chinese sources, he shows that the Cold War was from the outset a 'three-body problem,' with the Soviets seeking an unattainable parity with the United States, while China alternately attracted and repelled the other two. American policymakers in the 1960s and 1970s sought 'détente' with the Soviets, believing there could be 'linkage' to other issues of mutual interest. This was to underestimate the Soviet imperative to retain leadership of revolutionary forces around the world in a bitter competition with Beijing. This is a model of historical writing: scrupulously researched and elegantly presented, To Run the World shows how a volatile interplay of ideological, geopolitical, and psychological forces drove the Cold War on its erratic path.' Niall Ferguson, Milbank Family Senior Fellow, the Hoover Institution, and author of Kissinger: 1923–1968: The Idealist