PERHAPS A GIFT VOUCHER FOR MUM?: MOTHER'S DAY
Dr Samir Puri has had a ringside seat to several major events covered in this book. He served as an international observer at five Ukrainian elections, including the Orange Revolution in 2004. Soon after the first Donbas war began in 2014, he spent a year in east Ukraine working along both sides of the front line as part of an international ceasefire monitoring mission. During Russia's latest invasion of Ukraine, his analysis of the war has been featured by the BBC, Al Jazeera, Bloomberg, CNN, the Wall Street Journal and other media outlets. He is a visiting lecturer in war studies at King's College London and his previous book was The Great Imperial Hangover: How Empires Have Shaped the World.
"""Russia's catastrophic invasion of Ukraine poses weighty questions to the West: not only about the causes of war but about the eternal questions of causes and responsibility, structure and agency. Samir Puri enters this discussion with both passion and care. He draws on his own experience of the region and a deep study of Western-Russian relations over decades. As a result, he offers an account that is layered in its argument, with an eye to the war's roots in both human vice and tragic delusion. We don't yet know where the current battle is headed. But Puri's 'first cut' will help us greatly in fathoming how we got here."" Patrick Porter, Professor of International Security, University of Birmingham Samir Puri's Russia's Road to War with Ukraine is a ground-breaking study of the imperialist hubris behind Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine. The author has masterfully interwoven the historical legacy of the Soviet Leninist regime and its post-Soviet heirs. It is also an excellent account of the role of political leadership in times of war. The book is a must-read for students of International Relations and eastern European affairs."
