If Russia Wins
A Scenario
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4.0 • 11 Ratings
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
A #1 international bestseller from a NATO expert, this deeply researched and chillingly plausible scenario imagines what might happen should Putin defeat Ukraine and not stop there
March 2028. Russian troops capture the small Estonian town of Narva and the island of Hiiumaa in the Baltic Sea. After a victorious peace deal in Ukraine, Putin’s long-mooted encroachment into the Baltic states has begun. What if Ukraine was only the beginning? What will the NATO alliance decide? Will they risk nuclear war?
Day by day and hour by hour, renowned political scientist Carlo Masala plays out what might happen when the President of the United States is called on to uphold NATO’s commitment to mutual defense, just as China’s maneuvers in Asia provide welcome distraction.
A timely, gripping, and thought-provoking scenario, in less than 130 pages, If Russia Wins shows how our world order is poised on a knife-edge. In the United States, we are accustomed to everything working out in our favor, in the end. But what if it doesn’t? What if Russia wins?
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Today Ukraine, tomorrow Estonia, warns Masala, a professor of international politics at Munich University, in his English-language debut, an immersive work of speculative nonfiction. A bestseller in Germany, the book envisions a near future in which Russia succeeds in holding onto Ukraine; a cash-strapped Europe abandons rearmament; and America normalizes relations with Russia while pivoting toward Asia. The result is a 2028 surprise Russian attack on Estonia, under the guise of protecting the country's Russian-speaking citizens from discrimination. Estonia, a NATO member, then calls on that organization to defend it, leading to an international crisis. Masala's novelistic narrative astutely depicts the ensuing diplomatic wrangling: the Baltic States, Eastern Europe, and Germany demand a decisive response, as the French, echoed by Hungary and Italy, take the lead in equivocating; a Trumpian U.S. president declares that America's not paying for Europe's defense; and the U.S. national security adviser is spooked by Russia's nuclear saber-rattling. Masala's what-if about a West that crumbles before Russian brinksmanship has the excitement of a thriller, but less convincing is his depiction of the other side: his scenario never adequately explains why Russia would nip at the NATO alliance as opposed to gobbling up another NATO outsider like Ukraine. Still, this provocative thought experiment will appeal to geopolitics wonks.
