Russia Upside Down, Joseph Weisberg
Russia Upside Down, Joseph Weisberg
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Russia Upside Down
An Exit Strategy for the Second Cold War

Author: Joseph Weisberg

Narrator: David de Vries

Unabridged: 11 hr 18 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: PublicAffairs

Published: 09/28/2021

Synopsis

A former CIA officer and the creator of the hit TV series The Americans makes the case that America's policy towards Russia is failing--and we'll never fix it until we rethink our relationship.  Coming of age in America in the 1970s and 80s, Joe Weisberg was a Cold Warrior. After briefly studying Russian in Leningrad, he joined the CIA in 1990--just in time to watch the Soviet Union collapse.  But less than a decade after the first Cold War ended, a new one broke out. Russia changed in many of the ways that America hoped it might--more capitalist, more religious, more open to Western ideas. But US sanctions have crippled Russia's economy; and Russia's interventions have exacerbated political problems in America. The old paradigm--America, the free capitalist good guys, fighting Russia, the repressive communist bad guys--simply doesn't apply anymore. But we've continued to act as if it does. In this bold and controversial book, Joe Weisberg interrogates these assumptions, asking hard questions about American policy and attempting to understand what Russia truly wants. Russia Upside Down makes the case against the new Cold War. It suggests that we are fighting an enemy with whom we have few if any serious conflicts of interest. It argues that we are fighting with ineffective and dangerous tools. And most of all, it aims to demonstrate that our approach is not working. With our own political system in peril and continually buffeted by Russian attacks, we need a new framework, urgently. Russia Upside Down shows the stakes and begins to lay out that new plan, at a time when it is badly needed.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Michael on August 15, 2021

Russia Upside Down by Joe Weisberg I found this to be a very frustrating book. Mr. Weisberg is the creator of The Americans TV Program. In this book Mr. Weisberg who once worked for the CIA has re-examined his thinking about the USA and Soviet/Russia and how we should manage this relationship. Clearl......more

Goodreads review by Reed Hasson on March 13, 2022

Interesting rethink of the Soviet Union that many Americans think of being a monolith. Does not really use concrete examples and vacillated between his personal experience and opinions and uncited facts for there to be a cohesive argument......more

Goodreads review by Dimitrije on October 12, 2024

Joe Weisberg je kreirao kapitalnu televizijsku seriju THE AMERICANS u koju je uneo svoj relativno minorni staž kao CIAša i sudeći po knjizi RUSSIA UPSIDE DOWN veliki interes da se životno pa i ideološki preispita. RUSSIA UPSIDE DOWN je Weisbergov obračun sa samim sobom i svojom mladošću koju je prove......more

Goodreads review by Matthew on March 19, 2022

I picked up this book after my son and I saw it in a book store. He is very interested in foreign policy, especially related to Russia and Ukraine. It was displayed with a bunch of other truly outstanding books on the same topic, such as Gates of Europe, with some favorable blurbs from apparently kn......more

Goodreads review by Bruce on October 03, 2022

Despite my 3 star review you should to read this book. if that is you are an American who wants to understand Russia from an understandable American point of view. It's so rare to get anything even approaching an attempt to explain Russia from an American who is not pro- or anti- Russia. He does cov......more

Quotes

“Weisberg clearly knows his stuff…Perceptive insights into a consistently dysfunctional international relationship.”
 —Kirkus Reviews, starred

“Joe Weisberg uses his own story, and his deep knowledge of all things Russian, to argue that we need a new understanding of our oldest adversary. What a brilliant book!”
 —Malcolm Gladwell

“How dare you, Joe Weisberg, make me rethink my comfortable loathing of the Russians? I spent my entire career fighting these guys and saw close up how dirty they fight. But do we fight any cleaner? Your book convinces me that both sides are rational actors pursuing defensible goals. Putin and Biden can find common ground if they don’t let outdated biases and antagonisms get in their way. Sign me up, Joe, for not wanting a Second Cold War. The first one was bad enough.”—James M. Olson, former chief of CIA Counterintelligence and author of To Catch a Spy: The Art of Counterintelligence

“Joseph Weisberg’s crusade against groupthink, which drives the United States and Russia into another Cold War, is truly an act of bravery.”—Andrey Bezrukov (AKA Donald Heathfield), former Russian intelligence officer serving as an “illegal” in the United States, 1999–2010, and current professor, Moscow State University of International Relations

“I spent twenty-eight years as a CIA officer, working to understand and operate effectively in the world. Russia Upside Down hit and intrigued me intellectually and made me look at foreign affairs through a different lens.”—Darrell M. Blocker, former chief of the CIA’s Africa Division and Deputy Director of the Counterterrorism Center, and current COO, Mosaic Security

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