To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power (Guest: Sergey Radchenko)

Ill Literacy: Books with Benson

Heartland’s Tim Benson is joined by Sergey Radchenko, Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, to discuss his new book, To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power. They chat about how the Soviet struggle with the United States and China reflected its irreconcilable ambitions as a self-proclaimed superpower and the leader of global revolution, and how this tension drove Soviet policy throughout the second half of the 20th Century. They also discuss whether Soviet foreign policy was motivated more by Marxist-Leninist ideology or by traditional Russian imperialism and security concerns.

Get the book here: https://www.cambridge.org/us/universitypress/subjects/history/diplomatic-and-international-history/run-world-kremlins-cold-war-bid-global-power?format=HB

Show Notes:

The Bulwark: Brian Stewart – “Going to War for Respect”

https://www.thebulwark.com/p/review-radchenko-run-world-going-war-for-respect

Financial Times: Edward Luce – “To Run the World — Moscow’s quest for power and parity with the US”

https://www.ft.com/content/e8dc41b9-98a7-4ca0-8092-79d64249694a

Foreign Affairs: John Lewis Gaddis – “Why Would Anyone Want to Run the World?”

https://www.foreignaffairs.com/reviews/why-would-anyone-run-world-cold-war

Foreign Policy: Casey Michel – “Putting the Cold War on the Couch”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2024/05/19/radchenko-gorbachev-krushchev-cold-war-psychology/

The New Statesman: Serhii Plokhy – “Russia’s great-power complex”

https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2024/06/russias-great-power-complex

The Spectator: Rodric Braithwaite – “China’s role in Soviet policy-making”

https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/chinas-role-in-soviet-policy-making/