The Eagle and the Trident: U.S. - Ukraine Relations in Turbulent Times

by Steven Pifer

The Eagle and the Trident provides the first detailed account of U.S. diplomacy toward independent Ukraine, covering the formative dozen years following the collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991. Steven Pifer, a career Foreign Service officer who, during that period, worked on U.S. Ukraine relations at the State Department and the White House and as ambassador to Ukraine, has written an insider's narrative of the ups and downs in the relationship between Washington and newly independent Ukraine. During the period covered by the book, the United States generally succeeded in its major foreign policy goals in Ukraine, notably the safe transfer of nearly 2,000 strategic nuclear weapons left there after the Soviet collapse. Washington also provided support for Ukraine's effort to develop into a modern, democratic, market-oriented state. These latter efforts were only modestly successful, however, with the result that Ukraine was less able than it could have been to stand up to Russian aggression in the Crimea in 2014. The author reflects on what worked and what did not work in the various U.S. approaches toward Ukraine. He also offers a practitioner's recommendations for current U.S. policies in the context of ongoing uncertainty about the political stability of Ukraine and Russia's long-term intentions toward its smaller but important neighbor.

Genres: Ukraine

366 pages, Hardcover

First published August 22, 2017

Reviews

[Ted · Rating 5 out of 5]

I got a copy the year it came out in 2017, when I joined the Brookings Institution, but the current crisis Russia is forcing over Ukraine made me move The Eagle and the Trident to the top of my reading queue. The book focuses on the U.S.-Ukraine relationship up to the Orange Revolution, with just a 40-page condensed account of the following 12 years and further reflections at the end. But Pifer's detailed account of that early period when many of the patterns of the relationship were set - in which he served as U.S. ambassador from 1998 to 2000 and in key Eastern Europe policymaking jobs in Washington - is interesting and insightful for the current moment. He is also a very crisp, clear writer; this is a very readable work of history. If you're interested in Ukraine, I highly recommend it.

[Michael Samerdyke · Rating 2 out of 5]

A book on an important subject to be sure, but this one was as dry as reading 25 year old newspaper clippings.

Perhaps that is the point that American-Ukrainian relations started with no interest in Ukraine as a place, only with the desire that the nuclear weapons on Ukrainian territory be done away with. Once that happened, Ukraine fell off the radar.