As the Ukraine War heads into its third year, it is clear that the grinding military battle has not resulted in a clear path to victory for either side, despite all efforts \u2014 including billions of dollars of weapons and aid \u2014 by the West to destroy the Russian presence there and even the Putin leadership back in Moscow. For many in Western capitals, the media, and especially the Washington establishment, this should have been a clearcut case of an invader and violator of sovereignty and democracy denying conquest.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n But history has a tendency to complicate things, and as journalist Scott Horton writes in painstaking detail, that this is not just a story of Russian revanchism, but the apotheosis of decades of American policy to diminish and isolate the former Soviet Union for the benefit of its own empire. In Provoked: How Washington started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine<\/em><\/a> (2024), Horton unearths the building blocks of the crisis, beginning with President H.W. Bush and leading right into the twilight of the Biden Administration.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n Join the author and Kelley Vlahos, Editorial Director of Responsible Statecraft<\/a>, for a conversation that delves into the making of a war, and the hubris of empire.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n