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July 1, 2025

Book Review: Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine 

Cover for Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in UkraineStrategy |

Author: Scott Horton 

| Reviewed by Lieutenant Colonel Josh VanBuskirk, commander, 6th Battalion, 95th Regiment, San Antonio, Texas 
  
Billed by the reviewer as “must-read for military professionals who want to understand how the United States and Russia came to the precipice of war,” this book posits that the Washington bipartisan foreign policy consensus is to blame for the Russia-Ukraine War. Using US diplomats, bureaucrats, defense contractors, and politicians to make his point, Horton uses their work to argue for restraint when dealing with Russia. 
 

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Keywords: Russia; Ukraine; Russia-Ukraine War; Cold War; NATO 
 
©2025 Josh VanBuskirk