Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin and Russia’s War Against Ukraine

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Throughout the book, men such as Yanukovych are brought to the fore and their role before Putin's decision to invade the Ukraine. Most Russian friends did not believe Putin would invade - but they failed to understand their own Tsar of Eurasia (as the author calls Putin.

Overreach: How China Derailed Its Peaceful Rise - Goodreads

The title refers to Putin’s hubris in launching the Ukraine invasion, yet this book is much more, charting how the dream of reclaiming Moscow’s old empire went from “the marginal fringes of Russian politics to become official Kremlin policy”. A key observer of China provides a detailed account of that nation’s political transformation under its current leaders. Examples of the war are provided through reportage of people in actual situations. The descriptions can be quite detailed. Rough edges and a weaker third act do not prevent Overreach from achieving its aims. It is timely, compelling and arguably more perceptive than could reasonably be expected so soon. It is strongly recommended, especially for readers who have been following the war since February 2022, or who have some prior knowledge of Putin or Russian politics.

In Part 3, Matthews attempts to devote the same careful analytical attention to events following the February 2022 invasion. The results are mixed, in large part because these events are simply too recent. Matthews adopts a thematic, rather than strictly chronological account. Important topics, such as shifts in Western attitudes to the war and the effectiveness of economic sanctions, receive attention. However, Matthews is constrained by the limited information available at the time of writing. In February 2023 the question of Western resolve, while less pressing than in late 2022, remains open in the face of a potentially protracted conflict. A full understanding of the true impact of economic sanctions, and the consequent decoupling of Russia from Western economies, awaits the sort of detailed analysis by economists that will take years. This then, provides the reader with accounts, quotes and insight from current and former insiders, blended with those of people who fought/are fighting or suffered from Putin's "Limited Special Operation", as the first six months of this war unfolded. Shirk’s prescription for US Presidents handling the Chinese Leviathan in international affairs is to fix democracy at home and slowly feed incentives to the Chinese leadership to want to cooperate with its neighbours so that they will bully them less. What I admire most about the author’s writing in this book is it’s remarkable frankness. He does not try to achieve fake “balance” by making the Ukrainian Government sound as bad as the Russian Government. But what all sides overlook and their genuine mistakes are on full display and are carefully and shrewdly observed.

Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine Overreach: The Inside Story of Putin’s War Against Ukraine

I found the book fairly objective, which is a plus point. It oversimplifying to cast Ukraine as the good guys and Russians as the bad guys. Ukraine did have its issues and not everyone is blameless. Most rational people act in rational ways and Putin is no exception, although the invasion turned out to be a catastrophic blunder, and a gross misreading of the situation, he still acted as he did for a reason. That's what Overreach is all about. Part III - Pyrokinesis. - everything that validated the wars beginning and what has followed, to Spring 2023. transitive, intransitive , figuratively ) To do something beyond an appropriate limit, or beyond one's ability.

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Putin had places his justification(s) for the invasion on many factors, including the Minsk accords during President Obama's years, expansion of NATO "eastward" (into Eastern Europe's former Warsaw Pact members), and other, personal justifications. But "why" the 2022 invasion? Of course, history tells us that whenever one great power’s influence is fading and a rival’s is growing, conflict is inevitable. But the competition doesn’t necessarily require military action. Yet the risk of a military clash between the US and China has grown markedly over the past two decades. Certainly, the US shares some responsibility for this shift. But, as Dr. Shirk makes clear, a series of missteps in Chinese policy—none of them inevitable—has been the determining factor. And the first of those missteps predated the ascension of Xi Jinping by a decade. It was under his predecessor as General Secretary, Hu Jintao, that the pattern was set. And in Overreach, the author explains how this new course in Chinese foreign and military policy emerged from the bureaucratic muddle at the top of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Reshaping [of British Railways] was far from perfect. It was tainted by statistical overreach, the unconscious biases of its author, and by the political demands being placed upon the BRB by government. transitive , archaic ) To get the better of, especially by artifice or cunning; to outwit. [from 16th c.] Remain open to China's participation in certain multilateral agreements granted e.g., digital agreements;