Episode Details

Russian officials and experts often voice the view that the United States was hell-bent on undermining, even destroying Russia during the turbulent period of the Soviet breakup 30 years ago. The primary U.S. goal, in this telling, was to expand NATO to Russia’s borders to isolate and threaten the Russian state.

Former NATO Deputy Secretary General Rose Gottemoeller, drawing from the historical record and her own professional experience, refutes this notion. Gottemoeller argues that, to the contrary, successive American presidents were convinced that deep cooperation with Russia is essential to international security and stability. This conviction was born during the George H.W. Bush administration and took definitive shape during the administration of Bill Clinton, when he and his Russian counterpart Boris Yeltsin agreed to develop technological cooperation that would be useful to both countries. 

While today is starkly different from the 1990s, Gottemoeller’s new book Security Through Cooperation takes the lessons learned and considers what it would take—when Russia exits its horrific adventure in Ukraine and atones for the damage it has done—to resume cooperation for the sake of global security.

Join Rose Gottemoeller to hear about the issues raised in her book as well as her thoughts on the future of NATO, and her analysis of the Iran war. 

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