The Lost Peace: How the West Failed to Prevent a Second Cold War

Roundtable Discussion

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

11:00 am - 12:30 pm

Online event

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Meeting ID: 989 4425 2041

After the end of the Cold War, hopes were high for an era of Russo-Western cooperation and a positive peace order in Europe. In a vitally important new book, Dr Richard Sakwa explores the reasons for the collapse of those hopes in the thirty years that followed. Understanding this history is vital not only to understanding the roots of the present disastrous war in Ukraine and the breakdown in European security more broadly, but to formulating ways out of that conflict and finding pathways to establishing a new European peace order. With the rise of China and the resurgence of Russia, today there are once again global powers rivaling those of the West. We are now in a Second Cold War – and international security is under threat. In this incisive account, Richard Sakwa traces the loss of peace and the new configuration of international politics that has arisen in its place, demonstrating that the years of 'cold peace' were little more than a hiatus. As Russia aligns with China, shifts in global politics blur the lines of confrontation and the liberal order as a whole faces unprecedented challenges. In a compelling reinterpretation of the accepted narrative, Sakwa shows how this new conflict could have been avoided – and what we need to learn to finally inaugurate a new peace order.

Speakers

Dr. Richard Sakwa is Emeritus Professor of Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent, UK. He is one of the foremost experts on Russia and the other countries of the former USSR, and on Russia’s relations with the West. He is the author of numerous leading books on these subjects, including Frontline Ukraine (2015, republished 2022) and Deception: Russiagate and the New Cold War (2022).

Nicolai N. Petro is Professor of Political Science at the University of Rhode Island. His scholarly awards include two Fulbright awards, a Council on Foreign Relations Fellowship, and research awards from the Foreign Policy Research Institute, the National Council for Eurasian and East European Research, the Kennan Institute for Advanced Russian Studies in Washington, D.C., and the Hoover Institution at Stanford University. In addition to his scholarly writings, which are available on his web site www.npetro.net, he has written for numerous leading journals.

Paul Grenier, an essayist and translator, is the president of the Simone Weil Center for Political Philosophy and editor of Landmarks: A Journal of International Dialogue. His work has appeared in American Affairs, The National Interest, Telos, The American Conservative, Consortium News (among other places), as well as in translation in Russian, French and Spanish. He worked for many years as a simultaneous interpreter for the U.S. Defense and State Departments.

Moderator

Marlene Laruelle is a Research Professor of International Affairs and Political Science at the Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES), and Director of the Illiberalism Studies Program.

This event is on record and open to the media.

The Russia Program at GW condemns Russia's invasion of Ukraine and calls for the restoration of Ukraine's sovereignty.

The Institute for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies (IERES)

Elliott School of International Affairs, George Washington University

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