Eugene Fishel. The Moscow Factor: U.S. Policy Toward Sovereign Ukraine and the Kremlin. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2022. 221 pages. $29.95.

• Author: Knox, Allison G.S.

The Moscow Factor: U.S. Policy Toward Sovereign Ukraine and the Kremlin was published at a very important time in international political history. In February 2022, Ukraine was invaded by Russia ushering in a new set of policy considerations for the United States and the international political arena. Fishel's book focuses on the relationships between the United States and Ukraine and Russia and given the current circumstances, this book provides a foundation where scholars, government officials and individuals interested in learning more about these political dynamics can read this book to better understand the political nature surrounding these world leaders. The Moscow Factor is not only interesting but is an important read during the international political turmoil surrounding the serious Russia and Ukraine war.

The Moscow Factor: U.S. Policy Toward Sovereign Ukraine and the Kremlin opens with the author telling a story within the Oval Office of the White House. Fishel cleverly outlines the discussion highlighting the state of the relationship between nations--but finally ends the discussion explaining that this was a conversation that took place about Poland, the USSR and President Franklin Roosevelt. The story, in essence, highlights the fact that the American international policy towards former Soviet countries remains similar as it did during the Roosevelt Administration. Fishel explains that the core concept at stake has been a careful balance between maintaining a tense relationship with Russia (as he explains a "geostrategic necessity" and supporting Ukraine as an independent European country (p. 2). Fishel also notes that the containment policies of the twentieth century were very much a part of the U.S. policies towards Russia (p. 6). Fishel uses these important policy considerations as the basis of his book to understand how the "Moscow Factor" (the American policy towards Russia), has "affected both the formulation and implementation of U.S. policy towards Ukraine, questions that have not been studied in a systematic fashion," (p. 9).

Fishel's hypothesis focuses on "the dynamics associated with America's recognition of Ukraine's independence from the USSR, the pursuit of Ukraine's denuclearization, support for the so-called Orange Revolution in Ukraine, and the non-provision of lethal military assistance to Ukraine in the face of Russia's occupation of the Crimean Peninsula and aggression in eastern Ukraine," (p. 9). Fishel...