Roundtables

In this roundtable review, Mark Pomar, Kathryn Stoner, Carol Saivetz, Natasha Kuhrt, and Onur İşçi offer their thoughts on Sergey Radchenko’s new book, “To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power.” These contributors offer a diverse range of perspectives on Soviet foreign policy — and implications for Russian policy today. Plus, Radchenko offers a response.

In this roundtable review, Michael Kofman, Dara Massicot, Cynthia Roberts, and Michael Petersen discuss Dima Adamsky’s new book, “The Russian Way of Deterrence: Strategic Culture, Coercion, and War.”

In his book, “Command: The Politics of Military Operations from Korea to Ukraine,” Lawrence Freedman highlights why an understanding of politics is a central component of military leadership. In this roundtable review, Jason Dempsey, Raphael Cohen, Susan Bryant, and Sonya Finley consider the lessons that leaders can draw from Freedman’s book and the importance of a political sensibility that allows commanders to navigate complex military and political environments.

Conducting a post-mortem review after a war is an important but fraught exercise. In “The Inheritance: America’s Military After Two Decades of War,” Mara Karlin draws on her experience as a policymaker and academic to assess the legacy of the post-9/11 wars for the military and society and identify lessons for the future. In this roundtable review, our contributors consider Karlin’s analysis and draw on their own expertise to examine the legacy of 20 years of war.

At this time of growing concerns about tensions in East Asia and great-power competition, TNSR brought together four experts to review “The Other Great Game: The Opening of Korea and the Birth of Modern East Asia” by Sheila Miyoshi Jager. Jaehan Park, Paul Behringer, Sangpil Jin, and Seo-Hyun Park consider some of the important historical lessons in the book and how those might apply to global politics today.

Debates in Washington over how to respond to wars involving Israel have a long history. In this review, our contributors consider what lessons to learn from Galen Jackson’s book “A Lost Peace: Great Power Politics and the Arab-Israeli Dispute, 1967–1979.”

The impacts of the war in Vietnam did not end when Saigon fell. Our contributors review Amanda C. Demmer’s “After Saigon’s Fall: Refugees and US-Vietnamese Relations, 1975-2000” and consider remembrance, policymaking, and humanitarianism in U.S.-Vietnamese relations after the U.S. withdrawal.

In this roundtable, our contributors look back on the life and work of Robert Jervis. A towering figure in international relations, Jervis made crucial contributions to multiple academic fields as well as the U.S. government. He is remembered for his scholarly work as well as his generosity as a teacher, mentor, and colleague.

The contributors re-assess Alexander Haig’s stint as secretary of state and his impact on President Ronald Reagan’s early foreign policy, especially toward Cuba, the Soviet Union, and Afghanistan. His legacy offers insight into whether individual agency or deeper structures drive history.