Энн Эпплбаум - Should the West Engage Putin's Russia?

With the publication of this superb book, House of Anansi Press is helping the debates reach new audiences in Canada and around the world. The debates’ organizers would like to thank Anansi chair Scott Griffin and president and publisher Sarah MacLachlan for their enthusiasm for this book project and insights into how to translate the spoken debate into a powerful written intellectual exchange.

VLADIMIR POZNER is a veteran journalist and bestselling author. He is the host of the top-rated weekly current affairs program on Channel One — Russia’s largest TV network. Named the “Voice of Moscow” by CNN, he is a regular commentator on Russia and the Cold War in Western media. He is also the author of a number of bestselling books, including Parting with Illusions and Eyewitness: A Personal Account of the Unraveling of the Soviet Union . Pozner has won multiple awards, including three Emmy certificates and nine TEFY awards. He was also a correspondent for NBC during the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games, and has been a frequent guest on Western media analyzing the conflict in Ukraine and the partition of Crimea.

STEPHEN F. COHEN is professor emeritus of politics and Russian studies at Princeton University and professor emeritus of Russian studies and history at New York University. He is the author of a number of widely acclaimed books on Russia, including Bukharin and the Bolshevik Revolution: A Political Biography ; Rethinking the Soviet Experience ; and, most recently, Soviet Fates and Lost Alternatives: From Stalinism to the New Cold War . His new book Why the Cold War Again? will be published in 2015. Cohen is also a contributing editor to The Nation magazine and his articles have appeared in the New York Times , Washington Post , and other American and international publications.

ANNE APPLEBAUM is a journalist and leading expert on Russia. She was a member of the editorial board of the Washington Post between 2002 and 2006 and her writing has appeared in the New Yorker and the New Republic, among others. She is the author of several books about central and eastern Europe, including Gulag: A History , which won the 2004 Pulitzer Prize for Nonfiction, and Iron Curtain: The Crushing of Eastern Europe, 1944–1956 , which won the 2013 Cundill Prize in Historical Literature. Both books were nominated for the National Book Award. Her foreign affairs column appears biweekly in the Washington Post and Slate, and is syndicated around the world. Applebaum is currently the director of the Transitions Forum at the Legatum Institute.

GARRY KASPAROV came to international fame in 1985 as the youngest chess champion ever, at the age of twenty-two. He broke Bobby Fischer’s rating record in 1990 and his own peak rating record remained unbroken until 2013. He retired from competitive chess in 2005 to join the vanguard of the Russian pro-democracy movement. He founded the United Civil Front and organized the Marches of Dissent to protest the repressive policies of Vladimir Putin. In 2012, Kasparov was elected to the Coordinating Council of the united opposition movement and named chairman of the New York–based Human Rights Foundation, succeeding Vaclav Havel. Kasparov has been a contributing editor to the Wall Street Journal since 1991 and is a frequent commentator on politics and human rights. His book on decision-making, How Life Imitates Chess , is available in over twenty languages.

RUDYARD GRIFFITHS is the chair of the Munk Debates and president of the Aurea Charitable Foundation. In 2006 he was named one of Canada’s “Top 40 under 40” by the Globe and Mail . He is the editor of thirteen books on history, politics, and international affairs, including Who We Are: A Citizen’s Manifesto , which was a Globe and Mail Best Book of 2009 and a finalist for the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing. He lives in Toronto with his wife and two children.

The Munk Debates are Canada’s premier public policy event. Held semi-annually, the debates provide leading thinkers with a global forum to discuss the major public policy issues facing the world and Canada. Each event takes place in Toronto in front of a live audience, and the proceedings are covered by domestic and international media. Participants in recent Munk Debates include Robert Bell, Tony Blair, John Bolton, Ian Bremmer, Daniel Cohn-Bendit, Paul Collier, Howard Dean, Hernando de Soto, Alan Dershowitz, Maureen Dowd, Gareth Evans, Mia Farrow, Niall Ferguson, William Frist, Newt Gingrich, David Gratzer, Glenn Greenwald, Michael Hayden, Rick Hillier, Christopher Hitchens, Richard Holbrooke, Josef Joffe, Robert Kagan, Henry Kissinger, Charles Krauthammer, Paul Krugman, Arthur Laffer, Lord Nigel Lawson, Stephen Lewis, David Li, Bjørn Lomborg, Lord Peter Mandelson, Elizabeth May, George Monbiot, Caitlin Moran, Dambisa Moyo, Vali Nasr, Alexis Ohanian, Camille Paglia, George Papandreou, Samantha Power, David Rosenberg, Hanna Rosin, Anne-Marie Slaughter, Bret Stephens, Lawrence Summers, Amos Yadlin, and Fareed Zakaria.

The Munk Debates are a project of the Aurea Foundation, a charitable organization established in 2006 by philanthropists Peter and Melanie Munk to promote public policy research and discussion. For more information, visit www.munkdebates.com.

Rudyard Griffiths’s interviews with Anne Applebaum, Garry Kasparov, Stephen F. Cohen, and Vladimir Pozner were recorded on April 10, 2015. The Aurea Foundation is gratefully acknowledged for permission to reprint excerpts from the following:

(p. 55) “Anne Applebaum in Conversation,” by Rudyard Griffiths. Copyright © 2015 Aurea Foundation. Transcribed by Transcript Divas.

(p. 63) “Garry Kasparov in Conversation,” by Rudyard Griffiths. Copyright © 2015 Aurea Foundation. Transcribed by Transcript Divas.

(p. 71) “Stephen F. Cohen in Conversation,” by Rudyard Griffiths. Copyright © 2015 Aurea Foundation. Transcribed by Transcript Divas.

(p. 80) “Vladimir Pozner in Conversation,” by Rudyard Griffiths. Copyright © 2015 Aurea Foundation. Transcribed by Transcript Divas.

Edward Greenspon’s and Steve Paikin’s post-debate commentaries were written following the debates on April 10, 2015. The Aurea Foundation wishes to thank Rudyard Griffiths for his assistance in commissioning these essays.

(p. 89) “Post-Debate Commentary,” by Edward Greenspon. Copyright © 2015 Edward Greenspon.

(p. 95) “Post-Debate Commentary,” by Steve Paikin. Copyright © 2015 Steve Paikin.

From Ukraine to the Middle East to China, the United States is redefining its role in international affairs. Famed historian and foreign policy commentator Robert Kagan and Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist Bret Stephens take on CNN’s Fareed Zakaria and noted academic and political commentator Anne-Marie Slaughter to debate the foreign policy legacy of President Obama.

“Superpowers don’t get to retire… In the international sphere, Americans have had to act as judge, jury, police, and, in the case of military action, executioner.”