In this talk, Sergey Radchenko will discuss his forthcoming book on Soviet foreign policy during the Cold War. Drawing on a wealth of new Russian sources he will explore worldviews of Soviet leaders from Stalin to Gorbachev and explain how they made their decisions at key turning points that shaped the second half of the 20th century.

The book’s source base - hundreds of hitherto unseen speeches, memoranda and conversations - allow the author to draw a deeply personal psychological portrait of each Soviet leader, permitting a nuanced, textured understanding of Kremlin’s decision-making. The broader lessons of this psychological exercise stand relevant today.

The talk will be taking place in Bush House South East wing, room 1.01.

Speaker

Sergey Radchenko is the Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He has written extensively on the Cold War, nuclear history, and on Russian and Chinese foreign and security policies. He has served as a Global Fellow and a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Centre and as the Zi Jiang Distinguished Professor at East China Normal University (Shanghai). Professor Radchenko’s books include Two Suns in the Heavens: the Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy (Wilson Center Press & Stanford UP, 2009) and Unwanted Visionaries: the Soviet Failure in Asia (Oxford UP, 2014).

Discussant

Dr Ruth Deyermond joined the Department of War Studies at King's College London after completing a PhD in Government and an MA in International Relations in the Department of Government at the University of Essex. Before this, She worked in HM Treasury in areas including UK policy towards the International Financial Institutions and the development of the Private Finance Initiative. Her current research focuses on Russian foreign policy, particularly towards the post-Soviet space, and on the post-Cold war relationship between the USA and Russia.