Bøker av Jonathan Haslam

On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukraine conflict that began eight years earlier. But the roots of the conflict began long before that historic date. After the fall of communism, politicians, professors and the public thought that democracy would spread to Eastern Europe and that these countries would share European values and beliefs. The EU, NATO and a host of NGOs set about encouraging this glorious future, expanding membership of the great institutions. The failure to achieve this is one of the most ironic aspects of the story of Western ambition since the end of the Cold War. And all concerned underestimated the effect on Russia. Especially the expansion of NATO. The Russian elite firmly believed that the US and Germany had promised them that NATO would not be extended to include the countries of the former Soviet bloc. Instead, in a stumbling progress witheringly described by Jonathan Haslam, successive American presidents distracted by domestic concerns found themselves going along with the absorption of Poland, the Czech republic and all the rest into the Western military alliance. They did not understand or care enough about the effects on Russia. The fledgling Russian democracy broke down and Vladimir Putin's personal dictatorship flourished, enhanced by the most corrupt form of oligarchic capitalism. This occurred while Russia was painfully isolated, removed from the larger institutions and communities that offered status and security. Every condescending reminder that Russia was a Power of the second rank exacerbated a grievous sense of loss. And the direct heirs of that state - whether in the fighting services, the secret intelligence services or the diplomatic service - suffered humiliation and innumerable slights: constant reminders of the indignity of their country's sudden impoverishment and impotence. This story, of European pride and pathological Russian resentment, is what lies behind the war in Ukraine. In Hubris, Jonathan Haslam, one of the world's greatest experts on Russian foreign policy and espionage, examines with chilling realism and caustic wit one of the most intractable issues of our time.

A bold new history showing that the fear of Communism was a major factor in the outbreak of World War IIThe Spectre of War looks at a subject we thought we knew-the roots of the Second World War-and upends our assumptions with a masterful new interpretation. Looking beyond traditional explanations based on diplomatic failures or military might, Jonathan Haslam explores the neglected thread connecting them all: the fear of Communism prevalent across continents during the interwar period. Marshalling an array of archival sources, including records from the Communist International, Haslam transforms our understanding of the deep-seated origins of World War II, its conflicts, and its legacy.Haslam offers a panoramic view of Europe and northeast Asia during the 1920s and 1930s, connecting fascism's emergence with the impact of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. World War I had economically destabilized many nations, and the threat of Communist revolt loomed large in the ensuing social unrest. As Moscow supported Communist efforts in France, Spain, China, and beyond, opponents such as the British feared for the stability of their global empire, and viewed fascism as the only force standing between them and the Communist overthrow of the existing order. The appeasement and political misreading of Nazi Germany and fascist Italy that followed held back the spectre of rebellion-only to usher in the later advent of war.Illuminating ideological differences in the decades before World War II, and the continuous role of pre- and postwar Communism, The Spectre of War provides unprecedented context for one of the most momentous calamities of the twentieth century.

The phrase "Cold War" was coined by George Orwell in 1945 to describe the impact of the atomic bomb on world politics. Far more than merely a straightforward history of the Cold War, this book presents an account of politics and decision making at the highest levels of Soviet power.

This is the third in a series of volumes detailing the history of Soviet foreign policy from the Great Depression to the Great Patriotic War. It covers Soviet policy in the Far East from the Japanese rejection of a non-aggression pact in January 1933 to the conclusion of a neutrality pact in April 1941.