Thomas Graham, "Getting Russia Right" (Polity Press, 2023)

Sep 10, 2025

In this discussion, Thomas Graham, a distinguished fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations with extensive experience in U.S.-Russia relations, shares his insights on the complexities of contemporary Russian politics. He examines the historical evolution of U.S.-Russian relations since the Soviet era and critiques the misjudgments American leaders have made regarding Russia's resurgence. Graham emphasizes the importance of understanding Russia's national interests, addressing the power paradox it faces, and advocating for strategic empathy in U.S. foreign policy.

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INSIGHT

Lifelong Engagement Shapes Expertise

Thomas Graham traced his Russia interest to Sputnik and early Russian studies, showing long-term immersion shapes expertise.
He argues lifelong engagement turned professional work into avocation and deepened practical understanding.

INSIGHT

Experts Misread Putin’s 2022 Calculation

Graham admits many experts misjudged Putin's 2022 invasion and expected incremental moves instead of a full-scale war.
He calls the invasion a strategic mistake for Russia that prolonged conflict into a war of attrition.

INSIGHT

Not A Cold War Repeat

Graham rejects the label "Cold War 2.0" and says the global strategic center is now multipolar with China as the main challenge.
He recommends treating U.S.-Russia ties as great-power competition, not ideological containment.

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“I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia,” Winston Churchill once said. “It is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma.” That saying sounds as true now as ever in the midst of Russia’s war in Ukraine. In Getting Russia Right (Polity Press, 2023), however, Thomas Graham provides an expert perspective on Russian history and statecraft and offers timely keys to Russian national interests which can help the United States get Russia right.

As US-Russian relations scrape the depths of Cold-War antagonism, the promise of partnership that beguiled American administrations during the first post-Soviet decades increasingly appears to have been false from the start. Why did American leaders persist in pursuing it? Was there another path that would have produced more constructive relations or better prepared Washington to face the challenge Russia poses today?

With a practitioner's eye honed during decades of work on Russian affairs, Graham, a distinguished fellow at the Council of Foreign Relations, deftly traces the evolution of opposing ideas of national purpose that created an inherent tension in relations. Getting Russia Right (Polity Press, 2023) identifies the blind spots that prevented Washington from seeing Russia as it really is and crafting a policy to advance American interests without provoking an aggressive Russian response. Distilling the Putin factor to reveal the contours of the Russia challenge facing the United States whenever he departs the scene, Graham lays out a compelling way to deal with it so that the United States can continue to advance its interests in a rapidly changing world.

Dr. Andrew O. Pace is a historian of the US in the world who specializes in the moral fog of war. He is currently a DPAA Research Partner Fellow at the University of Southern Mississippi and a co-host of the Diplomatic History Channel on the New Books Network. He is also working on a book about the reversal in US grand strategy from victory at all costs in World War II to peace at any price in the Vietnam War. He can be reached by email here or via his website. Andrew is not an employee of DPAA, he supports DPAA through a partnership. The views presented are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of DPAA, DoD or its components. 

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