Russia upside down : an exit strategy for the second Cold War / Joe Weisberg.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Home -- Always -- Therapy -- Cherkashin -- Evil empire -- Eight things I misunderstood about the Soviet Union -- Society and me -- Five things to reconsider about modern-day Russia -- Our part -- Their part -- Policy in a strange new world -- Letting go of espionage -- What they should do -- Conclusion: Politics and personality or, am I upside down?

A former CIA officer and creator of the hit TV series The Americans makes the case that America's policy toward Russia is failing--and to fix it, we need to radically rethink our most basic assumptions about Russia and the United States. Coming of age in America in the 1970s and 1980s, Joseph Weisberg was a Cold Warrior. He joined the CIA in 1990--just in time to watch the Soviet Union collapse. Post-Soviet Russia quickly changed in many of the ways America hoped it would--it became more capitalist, more religious, more open to Western ideas--but hostility between the two countries has now reemerged as strong as ever. As US sanctions seriously damage Russia's economy and Russian disinformation exacerbates political strife in America, we find ourselves locked in a second bitter and dangerous cold war. In this provocative book, Weisberg blends personal writing, history, and critical thinking to interrogate American ideas about Russia. He shows how our policies are still rooted in the distant past and iasks whether our distorted view of contemporary Russia is inextricably linked to a warped view of ourselves. Russia Upside Down makes the case that the second cold war won't end well--unless we make a choice to reexamine who we are and face the ways in which we are driving the conflict.