Author Archives: Jack
The GOP Presidential Primary Circus: Radical is Not Conservative
Tom Friedman has a column in today’s New York Times that really hits home. Entitled “We Need a Second Party,” he bewails the absence of any evidence that the politicians competing for the Republican nomination for president have a clue … Continue reading
Demonstrations in Moscow
You will find an eyewitness description of the demonstrations in Moscow yesterday here. You will also find a very interesting discussion of the charges by Prime Minister Putin that the United States has been trying to create an “Orange Revolution” … Continue reading
Gorbachev’s Achievements
Oxford Professor Archie Brown, who has written several insightful studies of Gorbachev and, most recently, a much acclaimed The Rise and Fall of Communism, summarized in a recent posting what he considers Gorbachev’s twelve most significant achievements. He points out that the list is … Continue reading
Mikhail Gorbachev’s 80th Birthday
Mikhail Gorbachev, former President of the Soviet Union, will turn 80 on March 2. It is remarkable to me that so many of his compatriots fail to recognize his contribution to some of the most momentous changes in world politics. … Continue reading
Nina L. Khrushcheva, Imagining Nabokov: Russia Between Art and Politics
I was privileged to have Nina Khrushcheva, Nikita Khrushchev’s great granddaughter, as my research assistant when I was Kennan Professor at the Institute for Advanced Study. She is now a tenured professor at the New School University in New York. In her book on Vladimir Nabokov, … Continue reading
Andrei Grachev, Gorbachev’s Gamble: Soviet Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War
Written by one of Gorbachev’s closest advisers, this is probably the best account published as yet in any language of what went on within the Soviet government as the Cold War came to an end and the Soviet Union fell apart. No … Continue reading
Dick Combs, Inside the Soviet Alternate Universe: The Cold War’s End and the Soviet Union’s Fall Reappraised
Dick Combs, who served several tours at the American Embassy in Moscow, has written one of the best studies of the end of the Cold War and the Soviet collapse. In addition, Dick’s book contains many wise observations about current Russian and American … Continue reading
Kempton Jenkins, Cold War Saga
To us veterans of the Cold War’s diplomatic front lines, Kempton Jenkins tells it like it was. He names the key players, gives a keen insight into their character, and shows why some were heroes and some villains. Cold War Saga is … Continue reading