The New Cold War by Edward Lucas

The New Cold War by Edward Lucas is an old book, published for the first time in 2008 with the copy I read from 2014. That makes it perfect. It shows how much it was widely known about putin and russia at that point. I found it interesting that its subtitle changed. In 2008 it was Putin’s Russia and the Threat to the West, while in 2014 it became Putin’s Threat to Russia and the West. It is a small change, but significant.

This is a rather short book, of under 300 pages if excluding the notes at the end. It is also very nicely written, clear, concise, with lots of details making it a delight to read. The journalistic background of the author is great, as he makes the book very readable. He talks about putin and about russia, starting from the 1990s. He has a very strong moral compass and that shines through.

Many foreign journalists based in moscow tend to portray the country better than it is. This is a bit understandable as they are in that country because they liked what they knew about it before going there. For this reason, this account by Lucas who was moscow Bureau Chief for The Economist, is so well made. He tackled important issues, from Litvinenko’s accusations and murder, to what russia did in countries like Georgia and Estonia in a balanced way. It was very good to read a dispassionate analysis, which is lacking many times.

Another aspect that I found really interesting was his views and explanation on how russia used energy markets and how it used gas and oil to assert dominance in nearby counties. What is obvious now for everybody, that russia tried to use gas to basically blackmail Germany into not helping Ukraine (which was successful in 2008 at least, with the Bucharest NATO Summit), it was obvious for him back then. I knew many of the things he mentioned, but I learned a lot of new things from this book. I highly recommend it.

The New Cold War by Edward Lucas

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My rating: 5/5 Stars
Would I recommend it: yes
Published by: Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
Year it was published: 2014 (first published in 2008)
Format: Paperback
Genre(s): Non-European history – russia
Pages: 352

About the author: Edward Lucas is a British journalist. Lucas works for The Economist, the London-based global news weekly. He was the Moscow bureau chief from 1998 to 2002, and thereafter the central and east European correspondent. He has also been a correspondent for The Independent and the BBC. Lucas also writes occasionally for The Daily Mail.
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