Alexander Vindman, a retired U.S. Army Lieutenant Colonel, was the director for Eastern Europe, the Caucasus, and Russia on the White House's National Security Council. Previously, he served as the Political-Military Affairs Officer for Russia for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and as an attache at the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, Russia. While on the Joint Staff, he co-authored the National Military Strategy Russia Annex and was the principal author for the Global Campaign for Russia. He is a senior fellow for the Foreign Policy Institute at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Pritzker Military Fellow at the Lawfare Institute, executive board member for the Renew Democracy Initiative, senior advisor for VoteVets, and the author of the New York Times bestselling memoir, Here, Right Matters.
""Vindman has made his case. Trump, meanwhile, acts like Tony Soprano with nukes."" --Guardian ""Vindman shines. He doesn't simply dispense with the Russocentric visions of previous administrations, but he eviscerates the schools of thought undergirding the 'realism' motivating Bush, the idealism motivating Obama, and the kleptocratic rapaciousness motivating Trump.""--Bulwark An Instant New York Times Bestseller ""An excellent book.""--Rachel Maddow ""Alexander Vindman combines decades of experience in the US military and government with academic insight to explain how successive American administrations misjudged Russia and emboldened the Kremlin to start the largest conventional war in Europe since 1945. A must-read for anyone who wants to understand what went wrong and how it can be fixed.""--Serhii Plokhii, author of The Russo-Ukrainian War ""Vindman combines intricate analysis with personal observations...to make a spirited riposte to 'realists' who argue America has no vital interests in Ukraine. It's a penetrating take on American foreign relations.""--Publishers Weekly A Foreign Policy Biggest Foreign Policy Book of 2025 ""The Folly of Realism offers a powerful critique of the decades of policies, followed by Democrats and Republicans alike, that failed to defend sovereignty of and democracy in Ukraine. Drawing on his decades of unique experiences working on relations between the United State, Ukraine, and Russia, Vindman writes with clarity and persuasion first in diagnosing past problems and then in suggesting future prescriptions for US foreign policymakers.""--Michael McFaul, former US ambassador to Russia