A review of The Folly of Realism by Alexander Vindman; 304 pages; PublicAffairs (April 2025)

Foreign-policy “realists” believe that the international order is entirely governed by power and the pursuit of national interests. Practitioners of this ostensibly hardheaded school of thought deem considerations of ideology, morality, and honour irrelevant. The origin of this doctrine dates back to the Peloponnesian War, when Athens laid siege to the island of Melos. When the Melians protested that the Greeks had no right to conquer them, they were told that in nature power is the only law. Or as Thucydides put it in his celebrated history of that conflict: “The strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.”

The callousness of this approach to international relations can be observed with painful clarity in America’s looming betrayal of Ukraine. In thrall to a predatory worldview, the Trump administration has elected to reduce (although not yet fully withdraw) support from Ukraine as it fights for its independence against punishing Russian aggression. But the realist impulse in US foreign policy was evident long before Trump paralysed Ukrainian defences. Ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union, those recommending that Russia be granted a capacious sphere of interest have generally carried the day in the corridors of American power. Then as now, realism has allowed Russia to do what it can while inflicting terrible—and wholly avoidable—suffering on Ukraine.

In The Folly of Realism, Alexander Vindman has written a bracing primer about this catastrophic conflict and its implications for what used to be called the free world. The former director for European affairs on the White House’s National Security Council, Vindman draws on his extensive knowledge and experience to show that the war Russia is waging against Ukraine isn’t just about territorial gains or the global balance of power, as many realists insist. Fundamentally, it is a struggle over belief and historical memory. Russia’s goal is to swallow up the Ukrainian nation, thereby erasing its language and culture. Trump’s stubborn belief that a grand bargain can satisfy both Moscow and Kyiv demonstrates that he has not understood the cause of the war.