Marsh is a gifted journalist and his command of events is most impressive, but he does not have the same respect for ideas as he does for the nitty-gritty of reportage.
The simple geo-economic idea of the relentlessly adversarial state is a threadbare concept, badly in need of overhauling. And Mr. Luttwak's book is not the first step in that process
Russian nationalism is the most important but least understood force to have emerged from the shadows following the collapse of the Soviet Union.