Russophobia: Anti-Russian Lobby and American Foreign Policy 1st ed. 2009 Edition
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"The author painstakingly reconstructs and analyzes most visible expressions of Russophobia in various segments of American political class. . . [and] convincingly shows that Russia-hostile elites hold images of Moscow s eternal authoritarianism at home and permanent imperialism abroad." - Mirovaya Ekonomika i Mezhdunarodnyye Otnosheniya (World Economy and International Relations), No. 4, 2001, pp. 113-116
"The book s chapters deal with, among other topics, the Chechen wars, democracy promotion and energy policies. It is also important that this interpretation comes from a Russian-born political scientist who lives in the US and knows American discourse and politics well. Tsygankov s deep knowledge of both Russian affairs and camps and trends in US politics adds considerable value to this analysis. . . . this dense description of, and spirited attack on, Western rhetoric and policies regarding Russia will be a valuable addition and original contribution to seminars in such fields as international security, post-Soviet affairs and US foreign policy." - Europe-Asia Studies
"Although many works about anti-Americanism in Russia existed already, until now there was a lack of an approach that focused on Russophobia from an American perspective. . . Tsygankov s [book] provides the missing piece. . . This type of analysis opens the door for more comparative analysis of different "phobias" in international relations - Sinophobia, Islamophobia, Europhobia, etc. - and the tone of this book certainly inspires the further research of them that we would all benefit from." - Critique internationale
"In this stimulating and insightful book, Andrei Tsygankov shows how fear and loathing of Russia s political system as fundamentally incompatible with the interests and values of the West have distorted American popular perceptions of Russia and misguided U.S. policies toward the former Soviet Union. Arguing for a reorientation of U.S. attitudes and policies, Tsygankov calls for engagement, reciprocity, and patience as the keys to improving relations with an enormous, resource-rich, and strategically important country." - David S. Foglesong, Associate Professor of History at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, and author of The American Mission and the "Evil Empire"
"Andrei Tsygankov is one of the most profound analysts of both the rational and the irrational aspects of the US-Russian relationship. His searching, provocative book is an indispensable contribution to scholarship and to the debate on US policy towards Russia." - Professor Anatol Lieven, King's College London
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Product details
- Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan; 1st ed. 2009 edition (November 9, 2015)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 256 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1349378410
- ISBN-13 : 978-1349378418
- Item Weight : 1 pounds
- Dimensions : 5.51 x 0.59 x 8.5 inches
- Best Sellers Rank: #6,157,616 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,924 in Russian & Former Soviet Union Politics
- #5,476 in International Diplomacy (Books)
- #8,742 in International Relations (Books)
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Yet, already the title of the book indicates where Tsygankov may be defeating his purpose. By way of classifying most of US-American critique of Russia as "Russophobia", Tsygankov goes, at least in terms of the concepts and words that he uses to interpret these phenomena, a bit too far. Tsygankov asserts that Russophobia is a major intellectual and political trend in US international thought and behaviour. He also tries to make the reader believe that there exists a broad coalition of political commentators and actors that form an anti-Russian lobby in Washington.
It is true that there is a lot to be criticised and improved in Western approaches towards post-Soviet Russia - and towards the non-Western world, in general. US behaviour vis-à-vis, and American comments on, Russia, for the last 20 years, have all too often been characterized by incompetence and insensitivity regarding the daunting challenges and far-reaching consequences of the peculiarly post-Soviet political, cultural and economic transformation. Often, Russian-American relations have been hampered by plain inattention among US decision and opinion makers - a stunning phenomenon in view of the fact that Russia has kept being and will remain a nuclear superpower, for decades to come. The hundreds of stupidities that have been uttered on, and dozens of mistakes in US policies towards, Russia needed to be chronicled and deconstructed. Partly, Tsygankov has done that here with due effort, interesting results and some interpretative success. Yet, Tsygankov does not only talk about failures and omissions regarding Russia. He also speaks of enemies of the Russian state in the US, and their supposed alliances as well various dealings.
Certainly, there is the occasional Russophobe in Washington and elsewhere, in the Western world. Among such personage, there are even some who are indeed engaged in an anti-Russian political lobbying of sorts. However, the circle of activists who truly deserve to be called "Russophobes" largely contains immigrants from the inner or outer Soviet/Russian empire. These are people who have their own reasons to be distrustful of, or even hostile towards, Russia. After the rise of Vladimir Putin and the Russian-Georgian War, many of them, I suspect, feel that they have always been right, in their anti-Russian prejudices. In any way, this is a relatively small group of people who are more interested in the past and worried about the future of their newly independent nation-states than they are concerned about the actual fate of Russia herself.
Among those who are interested in Russia there are many, as Tsygankov aptly documents, who have recently been criticizing the Russian leadership harshly. Some of them have, in doing so, exerted influence on Western governments and public opinion. And partly such critique was, indeed, unjustified, unbalanced or/and counterproductive. But is that enough to assert that there is an "anti-Russian lobby"? What would such a lobby gain from spoiling US-Russian relationships? Who pays these lobbyists, and for what? Who, apart from a few backward-looking East European émigrés, is sufficiently interested in a new fundamental Russian-Western confrontation so as to conduct the allegedly concerted anti-Russian campaigns that Tsygankov appears to be discovering, in his book?



