a disaster of our own making

This searing account of the conflict between Russia and Ukraine reveals that, contrary to popular media narratives, Western hawks are culpable in triggering a war that has cost many thousands of innocent Ukrainian lives.

In 1991, the Cold War ended in a bloodless victory for NATO. After 45 years of a grueling, nuclear-tinged Cold War, communism was dead, Eastern Europe was free, Russia looked to the West for how to build a better, freer future for itself, and liberal democracy and capitalism reigned supreme.

But in the ruins of the last war lie the seeds for the next great conflict. Floating just beneath the surface of post-Cold War international relations was the question of what was to become of NATO with the loss of the Soviet Union as a threat. Western leaders believed expansion into the former Soviet states of Eastern Europe was the natural next step. But the Russians opposed this.

For 30 years, a succession of Russian leaders--from Mikhail Gorbachev to Boris Yeltsin to Vladimir Putin--warned the West that NATO’s expansion into territories bordering Russia, notably into Ukraine, would trigger a violent response from Moscow. Yet, the West did not listen. Contrary to the popular narrative in the West, A Disaster of Our Own Making: How the West Lost Ukraine will show readers how Westerners created our current crisis with Russia and why innocent Ukrainians are being made to pay with their lives for the arrogance (and ignorance) of Western leaders in the post-Cold War era. Thanks to their hubris, the world now teeters on the brink of a potential nuclear world war over the status of Ukraine.

Brandon J. Weichert is a geopolitical analyst and consultant for the United States Department of Defense and several private institutions specializing in the geopolitics of technology development. Weichert currently serves as a national security analyst for The National Interest. For years, he ran a popular geopolitics blog known as The Weichert Report: World News Done Right. Weichert is the author of three bestselling books. His writings have appeared in a variety of publications, such as the Washington Times, MSN, and the Asia Times. Weichert has been described as a ＂Panic and anxiety inducing scholar who tells us the things we don’t want to hear, but need to know.＂ He is a former congressional staffer who holds a BA from DePaul University and an MA in Statecraft and National Security Affairs from the Institute of World Politics in Washington, DC. A father of three beautiful daughters, Weichert splits his time between sunny Southwest Florida and bucolic Northern Virginia. He can be followed via Twitter @WeTheBrandon.