Blind alley

Russia and the New World Disorder. By Bobo Lo. Brookings Institution Press and Chatham House; 341 pages; $34 and £25.50.

SEEN from the Kremlin, Vladimir Putin’s foreign policy is a series of triumphs. He has killed NATO expansion, regained Crimea and exposed the weakness and hypo-crisy of the West. In Russia’s eyes, argues Bobo Lo in a thoughtful new book, “the humiliated nation of the 1990s has metamorphosed into a resurgent global power”. It is now “more independent, more indispensable, more self-confident, and more influential than at any time since the fall of the Soviet Union”. As a result, it believes it can dictate the terms of its engagement with the West. The outside world must adjust to Russia, not the other way round, treating it as an equal, respected partner.

Mr Lo, a former Australian diplomat who now works at the Chatham House think-tank in London, adopts a commendably calm approach to a topic which attracts plenty of polemic. At every stage he outlines Russian views of the world fairly, and highlights Western mistakes and misapprehensions, before proceeding to paint the full picture in precise and sometimes scathing terms.

The fundamental problem is that the Kremlin’s perception of the world is skewed. It exaggerates the West’s weakness and its own strength. It prizes hard power, which it lacks, and...

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