How the West sleepwalked into another Cold War

A native of Yalta, Constantine Pleshakov is intimately familiar with Crimea’s ethnic tensions and complex political history. Now, he offers a much-needed look at one of the most urgent flash points in current international relations: the first occupation and annexation of one European nation’s territory by another since World War II.

Pleshakov illustrates how the proxy war unfolding in Ukraine is a clash of incompatible world views. To the U.S. and Europe, Ukraine is a country struggling for self-determination in the face of Russia’s imperial nostalgia. To Russia, Ukraine is a “sister nation,” where NATO expansionism threatens its own borders. In Crimea itself, the native Tatars are Muslims who are vehemently opposed to Russian rule. Engagingly written and bracingly nonpartisan, Pleshakov’s book explains the missteps made on all sides to provide a clear, even-handed account of a major international crisis.

西方如何梦游般地进入另一场冷战

康斯坦丁-普列沙科夫是雅尔塔人，对克里米亚的民族矛盾和复杂的政治历史非常熟悉。现在，他对当前国际关系中最紧迫的爆发点之一进行了亟需的审视：二战以来一个欧洲国家的领土首次被另一个国家占领和吞并。

普列沙科夫说明了在乌克兰发生的代理战争是如何在不相容的世界观之间发生冲突的。对美国和欧洲来说，乌克兰是一个在俄罗斯的帝国怀抱中为自决而斗争的国家。对俄罗斯来说，乌克兰是一个 "姐妹国家"，北约的扩张主义威胁着它自己的边界。在克里米亚本身，当地的鞑靼人是穆斯林，他们强烈反对俄罗斯的统治。普列沙科夫的书写得引人入胜，而且不偏不倚，他解释了各方的错误做法，对一场重大的国际危机提供了清晰、公正的说明。