lse su economics essay competition 2022

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LSE Economics Society Essay Competition

20th June 2017

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We love enrichment opportunities at Tutor2u so news reaching us of an essay competition for sixth form students organised by the team at the London School of Economics is music to our ears! Here are the details of the essay titles for the 2017 challenge!

About the LSE SU Economics Society 

The LSE SU Economics Society is one of the largest student societies at the London School of Economics and Political Science, and the only one officially supported by the LSE’s Economics Department. This year they are introducing an essay competition for sixth form students  both to promote LSE and provide an avenue through which students can explore interesting questions beyond their syllabuses. 

Here are the questions for 2017:

• Can Economics tell us anything about how we can try to prevent war?
• Imagine that in front of you is a Big Red button. If you press the button, everyone in the world would have their wealth magically equalised. Would you press the button? Explain the economic reasoning behind your decision
• Discuss the effect of the rise of ad blocker software on the Internet – is it a blessing or a curse?
• ‘Free trade is a necessary evil’. How far do you agree?
• ‘On a societal level, University Education is inefficient – for most people, it hardly makes them better at their future jobs, but it comes at a huge opportunity cost because students miss out from entering a career earlier. Most people who go to university only do so because they’d be left behind in the job market if they didn’t go and everyone else did’. With reference to this argument, should the government drastically limit the number of university places available? 
• First prize: £125 Amazon voucher
• Runner-Up (2nd and 3rd place): £75 Amazon voucher
• 4th and 5th place: £25 Amazon voucher

In addition, the top three entries will also be included in Rationale, our economics magazine, which is widely read both across LSE and online, by many hundreds of our members. All shortlisted entires will receive certificates.

Poster to download from this link

• Entries should be around 1500 words long, and preferably not more than 2000 words
• Entry is open to students in their final two years of secondary school, or in sixth form college (including students taking A-Level and IB courses, as well as any equivalent course)
• All work must be the entrant’s original content, and must have been produced solely for this competition
• Students may choose their own titles different from those listed above, but they must still adhere to the rule that work is produced solely for this competition
• Entrants do not need to have studied economics at school in order to enter, but they should still try to make sure that their essay is heavily rooted in economics
• Entrants are allowed to ask for a limited amount of help from teachers if they are stuck, but we discourage this as much as possible. When you submit the essay you will be required to declare exactly how much help you received on the essay
• Entrants are allowed to submit more than one essay for the competition, should they wish

How to send through your entry

Entries should be emailed to this email address

( [email protected] )

The final deadline for essays is 1st August 2017

Here is an update from the LSE team (June 2017)

"We have managed to enlist the help of Prof. Christopher Pissarides (Regius Professor at LSE and 2010 Nobel Laureate) to be our final judge for the competition - he will choose our winners and runners up out of our shortlisted entries. Therefore, the essay competition now gives students the opportunity to have their work marked and critiqued by a Nobel Prizewinner. He will also sign the certificates which we give to our shortlisted entries."

Geoff Riley

Geoff Riley FRSA has been teaching Economics for over thirty years. He has over twenty years experience as Head of Economics at leading schools. He writes extensively and is a contributor and presenter on CPD conferences in the UK and overseas.

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Professor Vladislav Zubok

Professor - stevenson professor of international history, department of international history.

Vladislav Zubok is professor of international history, with expertise on the Cold War, the Soviet Union, Stalinism, and Russia’s intellectual history in the 20th century. Among his books are:  The Idea of Russia: The Life and Work of Dmitry Likhachev  (2017),  Dmitry Likhachev. The Life and the Century  (in Russian, 2016)  A Failed Empire: the Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev  (2007) and  Zhivago’s Children: the Last Russian Intelligentsia  (2009). His most recent book is:  Collapse. The Fall of the Soviet Union , was published by Yale University Press (London and New Haven, USA) in October 2021, and available in paperbook and audiobook.

Professor Zubok was born and educated in Moscow. He studied for his undergraduate degree at the Moscow State University and studied for his PhD at the Institute for the USA and Canada in Moscow.

In 1994 he became a fellow at the National Security Archive, non-government organization at the University of George Washington. He continued his academic career in the United States as a visiting professor at Amherst College, Ohio University, Stanford University, and the University of Michigan, and in 2004 became a tenured professor at Temple University.

His books earned the Lionel Gelber Prize and the Marshall Shulman Prize of the American Association for Advancement of Slavic Studies. Professor Zubok received numerous grants from the McArthur Foundation and Carnegie Corporation of New York, and from the Yeltsin foundation and the  Russkii Mir  foundation. Aside from academic work, Professor Zubok organized a number of international archival and educational projects in Russia, Ukraine, and South Caucasus. He held numerous fellowships, including the Norwegian Nobel Institute, the Wilson Center in Washington DC, Collegium Budapest, the Free University for Liberal Studies in Rome, the Rockefeller Center in Bellagio, and the Hoover Institute at Stanford University.

Professor Zubok also consulted a number of documentary films, most importantly Sir Jeremy Isaac’s twenty-four series  “Cold War” on CNN . He also published in: The Spectator, The Foreign Affairs, Boston Globe, the Guardian, and other public venues. His most recent publication in Foreign Affairs (with Sergey Radchenko) is “ Blundering on the Brink. The Secret Story and Unlearned Lessons of the Cuban Missile Crisis ”.

Download the CV

Other titles:   Research Committee Chair ;  Head of the Cold War Studies programme , MSc History of International Relations and MSc Theory and History of International Relations Programme Director

Expertise Details

Cold War; 20th-Century Russia

Teaching & supervision

Professor Vladislav Zubok usually teaches the following courses in the Department:

At undergraduate level:

HY242: The Soviet Union: Domestic, International and Intellectual History

At postgraduate level:

HY463: The Origins of the Cold War, 1917-1962

He also supervises the following students:

Professor Zubok supervised the following PhD graduates:

Publications

Professor Vladislav Zubok recent publications include:

• Collapse. The Fall of the Soviet Union (Yale University Press, 2021)
• " An Abiding Antagonism: Realism, Idealism and the Mirage of Western–Russian Partnership after the Cold War ",  International Politics , Vol. 54, No. 4, 405-419 (2017).
• " The Soviet Union and China in the 1980s: reconciliation and divorce ", Cold War History , Vol. 17, No. 2, 121-141 (2017).
• The Idea of Russia: The Life and Work of Dmitry Likhachev (I.B.Tauris, 2017)
• Dmitry Likhachev. The Life and the Century (in Russian, Vita Nova, 2016)
• "Russia, the U.S., and the Backstory behind the Breakdown" The Wilson Quarterly (Winter, 2016)
• “Gorbachev, German Reunification, and Soviet Demise,” Frederic Bozo, Andreas Roedder, Mary Sarotte, eds., German Unification: A Multinational History ( Routledge, 2016)
• “'Do not think I am soft…': Leonid Brezhnev," Steven Casey, Jonathan Wright, eds., Mental Maps in the Era of Detente and the End of the Cold War 1968-91 (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), p. 6-23.
• “H-Diplo Roundtable on Red Globalization: The Political Economy of the Soviet Cold War from Stalin to Khrushchev” , H-Diplo Roundtable Review , 2015, Vol. XVI, No. 24.
• “With His Back Against the Wall: Gorbachev, Soviet Demise, and German Reunification,” Cold War History , 2014, Vol. 14, No. 4, 619–645.
• "Soviet intellectuals after Stalin’s death and their visions of the cold war’s end” in: Frédéric Bozo, Marie-Pierre Rey, N. Piers Ludlow, and Bernd Rother, eds,.  Overcoming the Iron Curtain: Visions of the End of the Cold War in Europe, 1945–1990. Vol. 11, Contemporary European History (Berghahn Books, March 2012).
• D.S.Likhachev v obshchestvennoi zhizni Rossii kontsa XX veka [Dmitry Likhachev in the public life of Russia at the end of the 20th century] (St. Petersburg: Evropeiskii Dom, October 2011).
• Società totalitarie e transizione alla democrazia (il Mulino, Bologna 2011), editor with Tommaso Piffer. [Published in English by Central European University Press in 2017 under the title Totalitarian Societies and Democratic Transition ]
• Masterpieces of History: A Peaceful End of the Cold War in Europe, 1989 , editor with Svetlana Savranskaia and Thomas Blanton (Central European University Press, 2010).
• Zhivago’s Children: The Last Russian Intelligentsia  (Harvard University Press, 2009).
• A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev  (The University of North Carolina Press, 2007).

News & media

Cundill history prize award ceremony.

Professor Vladslav Zubok went to Montreal, Canada on 1st December as one of the three finalists for the Cundill History Prize , along with Ada Ferrer and Tiya Miles. The prize is awarded annually to the book that embodies historical scholarship, originality, literary quality and broad appeal.

Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History

Professor Vladislav Zubok's book, Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union , has won the 2022  Reginald Zelnik Book Prize in History .

Cundill History Prize shortlisting

Professor Vladislav Zubok's book, Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union , has been shortlisted for the 2022  Cundill History Prize . 

New Article in the Foreign Affairs

Professor Zubok's article in Foreign Affairs provides a historically informed approach to thinking about the war in Ukraine and what it will mean for Russia.  Read the article .

Essay on Roots of Ukraine-Russian War in Engelsberg Ideas

In a new essay by Professor Zubok, he focuss on the expansion of NATO and how this helped to tip a fragile balance between pro-Western and anti-American strands of Russia's politics after the Soviet collapse. The piece refers to newly declassified historical evidence, and takes a stab on a synthesis between Putin's geopolitical mythologizing and his attitudes to Ukraine.

Presentation at MIT Lectures Series

Professor Zubok spoke at an online session of the MIT 'Focus on Russia' Lecture Series on 25 April. His talk was on the subject of 'The Collapse of the Soviet Union and the Seeds of the New European War'.

New Essay in Engelsberg Ideas

An essay by Professor Zubok on the Soviet collapse and its resonances in the present situation in Ukraine. He argues that the Soviet collapse pointed to the possibility of great reversals and historic surprises. Yet, in invading Ukraine, Putin may have sealed the demise of his political enterprise. 

Contribution to New Article in the Financial Times

Read a contribution by Professor Zubok in an article about Western brands feeling Russian in the unravelling of 'capitalistic diplomacy'. To him, the corporate retreat marks the end of the era whose beginnings he witnessed while passing Moscow’s first McDonald’s on his way to work each day. “It was a new smell, a new sensation — fast service, everything was clean. Moscow was incredibly colourless [under the Soviet system] and you suddenly had a small island of light, colour and efficiency in the midst of the collapsing Soviet economy,” he recalled. Read the article .

Professor Vladislav Zubok on the Ukraine Crisis

 As Western leaders warn of an imminent invasion, our own Professor Vladislav Zubok explains the history behind the crisis which has seen the build up of 130,000 Russian troops on Ukraine's borders. Watch the video via LSE's Instagram page.

The Strange Death of the Soviet Union

On 15 November Professor Zubok participated in a panel discussion with Professor Kristina Spohr and with Emeritus Professor Archie Brown (Oxford) on the collapse of the Soviet Union. The event, hosted by LSE IDEAS, marked the publication of his new book Collapse (Yale University Press). Watch the video recording

The much awaited, Collapse. The Fall of the Soviet Union was released on 26 October. Published by Yale University Press, this major study of the collapse of the Soviet Union shows how Gorbachev’s misguided reforms led to its demise. Thirty years on, Professor Zubok, who observed the Soviet collapse for himself, offers a major reinterpretation of the final years of the USSR, refuting the notion that the breakup of the Soviet order was inevitable. Read more

Iran International documentary

Togerther with Dr Roham Alvandi , Professor Zubok was featured in a documentary film produced by Iran International, a London-based Persian-language TV station. “Red Boots: Soviets in Iran” discusses the Soviet occupation of Iran during and after the Second World War. Watch it here (in Persian) .

20th Annual Alexander Dallin Lecture

Professor Zubok delivered the 20 th Annual Alexander Dallin Lecture at Stanford University on 4 December. His talk, entitled "Reformed to Death: The Strange End of the USSR" was sponsored by CREEES (Center for Russian, East European & Eurasian Studies). Watch his lecture on YouTube .

Guest panelist at Miller Center international conference

On 8 November, Professor Zubok was on a panel with former Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott (Brookings Institution) and Professor Arne Westad (Harvard - former LSE International History) at an international conference in the Miller Centre, University of Virginia, US. The conference, titled " U.S. Presidents Confront the Russians: A Century of Challenge, 1917-2017 ", aimed to place the current US-Russia relationship into broad historical context by returning to key historical moments of crisis and controversy as well as restraint and compromise. By exploring U.S. presidents and their ties to Russian and Soviet leaders, and by analysing the perceptions of the latter, the event hoped to illuminate the real nature of the bilateral relationship: the underlying forces, ideological, geopolitical, strategic, historic—that have placed the United States and Russia at cross-purposes for the past century.

Public lecture in Oxford

Professor Vladislav Zubok gave a public talk at St Antony's College, University of Oxford, on 16 October. The talk, entitled “ Dmitry Likhachev and the dilemmas of Russian Cultural Nationalism ”, was based on his latest book, The Idea of Russia: The Life and Work of Dmitry Likhachev , which focuses on the life and work of one of the most prominent Russian intellectuals of the twentieth century.

Article on Soviet Union and China

' The Soviet Union and China in the 1980s: Reconciliation and Divorce ' is Professor Vladislav Zubok's latest article in the Cold War History journal. The article discusses Soviet and Chinese reforms and foreign policies in the 1980s in comparative perspective, in the light of recent archival findings. It argues that key policy choices by Deng Xiaoping and Mikhail Gorbachev, which made possible China’s rise and the Soviet Union’s collapse, can be better understood in comparative perspective.

Article on Europe's external relations

Professor Zubok has a new article out with Professor William Wohlforth in the July Special Issue of International Politics . The Special Issue, entitled “Europe and the World: Rethinking Europe’s External Relations in an Age of Global Turmoil” is already available online and Professor Zubok’s article, "An Abiding Antagonism: Realism, Idealism and the Mirage of Western–Russian Partnership after the Cold War", can be read with subscription or free for LSE users . The article asserts that Europe’s security environment is critically dependent on nature of the relationship between Russia and the broader west and addresses the obstacles in the way of a stable partnership.

English edition of Totalitarian Societies and Democratic Transition out now

The English edition of Società Totalitarie e Transizione alla Democrazia , initially published in Italian by Il Mulino in 2011, was published by Central European University Press under the title, Totalitarian Societies and Democratic Transition. Essays in Memory of Victor Zaslavsky , earlier this month. The book, co-edited by Professor Vladislav Zubok and Dr Tommaso Piffer (University of Cambridge) is a tribute to the memory of Victor Zaslavsky (1937-2009), sociologist, emigre from the Soviet Union, Canadian citizen, public intellectual, and keen observer of Eastern Europe. In seventeen essays leading European, American and Russian scholars discuss the theory and the history of totalitarian society with a comparative approach. They revisit and reassess what Zaslavsky considered the most important project in the latter part of his life: the analysis of Eastern European - especially Soviet societies and their difficult "transition" after the fall of communism in 1989-91. The book promotes new theoretical and methodological approaches to the concept of totalitarianism for understanding Soviet and East European societies, and the study of fascist and communist regimes in general. Order the book on Amazon UK .

New book, The Idea of Russia

Professor Vladislav Zubok’s newest book, The Idea of Russia: The Life and Work of Dmitry Likhachev , was released by IB Tauris in January 2017. As the title indicates, The Idea of Russia focuses on the life and work of one of the most prominent Russian intellectuals of the twentieth century, Dmitry Likhachev (1906-1999). His life spanned virtually the entire century - a tumultuous period which saw Russia move from Tsarist rule under Nicholas II via the Russian Revolution and Civil War into seven decades of communism followed by Gorbachev's Perestroika and the rise of Putin. In 1928, shortly after completing his university education, Likhachev was arrested, charged with counter-revolutionary ideas and imprisoned in the Gulag, where he spent the next five years. Returning to a career in academia, specialising in Old Russian literature, Likhachev played a crucial role in the cultural life of twentieth-century Russia, campaigning for the protection of important cultural sites and historic monuments. He also founded museums dedicated to great Russian writers including Dostoevsky, Pushkin and Pasternak. In this, the first biography of Likhachev to appear in English, Professor Zubok provides a thoroughly-researched account of one of Russia's most extraordinary and influential public figures. Buy The Idea of Russia on Amazon . The Idea of Russia is a shorter English version of Dmitry Likhachev. The Life and the Century also authored by Professor Vladislav Zubok and published in Russia by Vita Nova in 2016.

Dmitry Likhachev out in Russia

Professor Vladislav Zubok’s new book, Dmitry Likhachev: The Life and the Century , was launched in St. Petersburg, Russia, as part of a series of events taking place around the city celebrating the 110th anniversary of the birth of academician Dmitry Likhachev. On Tuesday, 29 November, Professor Zubok’s book was presented to the public at the State Museum of Political History of Russia. The event was mentioned by Russia News Today . Professor Zubok’s book analysis “archival materials and includes more than 150 photos from the collections of the family of the scientist, the Pushkin house and the Foundation named after Likhachev”.

Symposium dedicated to James Billington, Emeritus Director of the Library of Congress

On 16 November 2016, Professor Vladislav Zubok was a guest speaker at a symposium dedicated to the long-serving Director of the Library of Congress, James Billington. The symposium, titled “Culture as Conversation: A Classic Turns Fifty — A Symposium Dedicated to Re-ExaminingThe Icon and the Axe” , took place in the Washington College of Law, American University, and was organised by the Carmel Institute for Russian Culture and History in cooperation with the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies and the Wilson Center's Kennan Institute. Professor Zubok gave a speech largely based on his forthcoming book about James Billington’s Russian friend, D.S. Likhachev. Other speakers included Dr. Anton Fedyashin (Carmel Institute Director Associate Professor of History American University), Matthew Rojansky (Director of the Kennan Institute) and John R. Beyrle (US Ambassador to Russia, 2008-2012.

46th Annual Convention of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies

On November 21, 2014 Professor Vladislav Zubok was an invited speaker at the Presidential Plenary Session of the Association for Slavic, East European, and Eurasian Studies in San Antonio, Texas. The panel’s theme was: “ 25 Years After the Fall of the Berlin Wall: Historical Legacies and New Beginnings .” He spoke on the topic: “What can we learn from the Cold War now? Personality, Contingency, Identity Politics, and the Role of Money.”

My research

“wall street’s peace shenanigans”: stalin and a u.s.-soviet backchannel during the korean war.

Author(s) Vladislav Zubok

Blundering on the brink: the secret history and unlearned lessons of the Cuban missile crisis

Myths and realities of putinism and nato expansion.

ISSN/ISBN 9783031233647

The war in Ukraine

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Matthew Kolasa

October 18th, 2022, book review: russian grand strategy in the era of global power competition edited by andrew monaghan.

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Estimated reading time: 10 minutes

In  Russian Grand Strategy in the Era of Global Power Competition , editor  Andrew Monaghan brings together contributors to explore the military, political and economic features of Russian foreign policy. This  book will be a useful starting point for researchers, policymakers, students of history and politics and all those looking to understand Russia’s long-term goals and sense of its place in the evolving world order, writes  Matthew Kolasa .

Russian Grand Strategy in the Era of Global Power Competition . Andrew Monaghan (ed.). Manchester University Press. 2022.

Global or All Over the Map?

Russia’s aggressive foreign policy has left many asking if Russia is global or merely all over the map, yet Russian leadership is no mere opportunistic improvisor. Rather, it has a grand strategy and long-term goals. So argue the contributors to Russian Grand Strategy in the Era of Global Power Competition .

This timely new volume from Manchester University Press, edited by Andrew Monaghan, assembles academic and policy experts from six countries. The book is self-consciously focused on identifying a Russian perspective (with empathy rather than sympathy) for a Euro-Atlantic policymaking audience. Russian Grand Strategy enters a crowded field, joining recent studies by RAND and others. Monaghan’s volume distinguishes itself by focusing on strategy, providing multidisciplinary analysis from the perspective of figures at the top of Russia’s security, intelligence and administrative circles.

Many pundits have of late focused too much on Russian President Vladimir Putin’s isolation and mental health while ignoring systemic influences and the long-term strategy Russia has attempted to implement. Contributor Florence Gaub argues, ‘The first step for Europe is to recognize the very fact that Russia is trying to play a long game,’ and Ian Hill adds that Russian foreign policy is ‘characterised by a remarkable consistency of strategic outlook, intent, and purpose’.

Image Credit: Image by  Anatoly Kalmykov  from  Pixabay

Contributions include chapters on Soviet-Russian cartography, naval strategy, military technology, energy exports, polar sea route claims and the institutionalisation of strategic vision. Alexander Kent describes the legacy of Soviet cartography that has allowed Russia to understand in detail how terrain would affect the battlefield, to notable success in Syria after 2015. The detailed mapping capability among specialists, accessible to the Russian leadership, has failed to translate into success during the 2022 Ukraine invasion as Russian conscripts lack the training and equipment needed to take advantage of this cartographic knowledge. However, the revived military cartography apparatus nonetheless supports the argument of a Russia with global interests.

Michael Petersen demonstrates Russia has global maritime interests and prioritises not only access to warm water ports, but also its role as a global naval power with a base in Syria and a naval port under construction in Sudan. It also has the ability to project power in the Indian, western Pacific, Arctic and even Atlantic Oceans. The rebuilding of a navy after 1991 has met with mixed success, but the long-term planning and global ambition of the navy are evidence Russia has integrated its naval and grand strategies, despite the traditional conceptualisation of Russia as a land empire.

Nazrin Mehdiyeva expands on this maritime discussion and combines it with energy, the Northern Sea Route and Russian Arctic claims, with Russia’s selective attention to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea . She also discusses Russia’s development of the world’s only fleet of nuclear-powered ice-breakers and its investment in a military presence on the desolate Arctic coast.

Charles Bartles writes of Russian ambitions to build a ‘sixth-generation’ military, learning from US successes in Kuwait and the former Yugoslavia. The chapter focuses on a small number of Russian military thinkers and could better demonstrate whether the approach is part of a coordinated policy across branches. Development of precision-guided munitions and hypersonic missiles does not necessarily mean Russia has fundamentally changed its military power: a prototype is not equivalent to fully operational deployment. Readers of this chapter may risk taking Russian claims of its capability at face value.  While Bartles seeks to develop a Russian vision, greater clarity on whose vision it is would be beneficial and the difference between current capability and future aspirations warrants fuller explanation.

Richard Connolly offers a prescient chapter on the export of strategically important goods, especially energy and food. These goods magnify the country’s potential influence on the world economy in ways that belie a cursory glance at Russia’s level of trade as a share of global GDP. Including this chapter in a volume on grand strategy shows the role linkage can play in magnifying a country’s ability to achieve its foreign policy objectives. In another chapter, Julian Cooper delves into government attempts to write a unified strategic policy into federal law. This chapter does the important work of elucidating how Russian power differs in practice from its theoretical constitutional basis.

Some chapters have aged better than others in the months since the book’s 2022 publication. While Russia’s expansion of its Ukraine invasion laid bare military and logistical weaknesses, some of Russia’s difficulties were already visible. One issue clearer in some chapters than others is the difference between a plan and its implementation. On paper, Russia is the dominant force and able to project power with clarity and precision from Moscow using the latest technologies. In practice, much of Russia’s road to global ubiquity is yet to be paved.

Two aspects of grand strategy could have comprised additional chapters: first is the historical context of Russian grand strategy and its remarkable consistency over recent centuries. Second, a deeper discussion of Russian strategic vision and worldview, as famously described by Henry Kissinger . A sense of vision rooted in the government’s perception of its own history and destiny merits more discussion. Moscow has sought a European and Eurasian role since the 1700s and global influence since the 1800s. Russian attitudes toward ethnic Russians abroad also deserve further attention. This 196-page book leaves room for additional chapters to give a deeper sense of history, visions of world order and Russia’s mixed results in achieving its goals.

Informal aspects of power have a profound effect on how Russia works. From Putin’s dominance to the informal arrangement between the Kremlin and oligarchs to the complicated role of power fungibility in a federation, various phenomena create a gulf between vision at the top and implementation in the various organs of government power.  Discussion of these topics would allow the book to clarify the difference between theory and practice in Russian foreign policy.  There are risks to heavy reliance on Russian sources in its halls of power. First, a government document may prove more aspirational than operational. Second, policy planning documents may belie political realities precluding reform, though Chapter Six raises these risks. Third, concentration of power in a small number of people around a despot makes it harder to predict the leader’s focus, even if bureaucracies and institutional leaders have some autonomy.

Russian Grand Strategy is not comprehensive but it is a starting point for researchers, policymakers, students of history and politics or even a public bewildered by soaring energy prices and distressing headlines on war in Europe. The further reading sections at the end of the chapters are also a useful tool.

Featuring military, political and economic features of Russian foreign policy shows the emphasis on linkage between these policy areas by the Russian leadership, particularly in the last two decades. In contrast to the European Union, and to a lesser extent the US, Russia has been unafraid to form a unified approach to foreign policy, using each of the levers at its disposal simultaneously, applying economic pressure to encourage changes in competitor behaviour and weaken rivals.

The primary argument is that Russia is no geopolitical improvisor, but rather a state with specific, articulated objectives and a sense of its place in an evolving multi-polar world order. Russia’s Grand Strategy makes its arguments in a robust and coherent way and is a valuable contribution to understanding Russian foreign policy.

Note: This review gives the views of the author, and not the position of the LSE Review of Books blog, or of the London School of Economics and Political Science. The LSE RB blog may receive a small commission if you choose to make a purchase through the above Amazon affiliate link. This is entirely independent of the coverage of the book on LSE Review of Books.

About the author

Matthew Kolasa is an attorney in the US and pursuing a PhD at the University of St Andrews.  He completed a JD in International Law and an MA in International Relations at Boston University, an MST in Art History at the University of Oxford, and a BA in History and PPE at the University of Pennsylvania.  He was chair of the ISA International Law Section 2020-2022.

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Book Review: Collapse: The Fall of the Soviet Union by Vladislav M. Zubok

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Book Review: The War in Ukraine’s Donbas: Origins, Contexts, and the Future edited by David R. Marples

June 30th, 2022, subscribe via email.

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