Can Trump deliver peace with Russia for the West?

On 11 March I interviewed Professor Richard Sakwa about his new book, The Culture of the Second Cold War. I began the interview by asking him to assess the prospects of peace following the Trump administration’s moves to end the war in Ukraine.

Richard Sakwa is a renowned British political scientist and one of the world's leading experts on Russia-Western relations. He is Professor Emeritus in Russian and European Politics at the University of Kent. Details on his books are below.

This question—Can Trump deliver peace with Russia for the West? —has been widely debated including here at the Burning Archive, in my post, Trump's Peace is an American Hustle. The interview was recorded before the release of the joint USA-Ukraine statement containing a proposal to offer Russia a 30-day ceasefire. That proposal has only intensified the debate on whether Trump deliver peace with Russia for the West.

You will find Richard Sakwa’s assessment of the prospects to end the war, subtle and profound. He is clear that a positive peace, not a mere ceasefire, is possible. But only if we change the culture of cold war.

I am sharing the first 12 minutes of the video as a special early access bonus for subscribers. Please enjoy.

The full video will be released at the Burning Archive YouTube channel on 14 March at 11:10 am (AEDT, UTC +11). The one-hour interview is engrossing and illuminating.

We discussed Richard Sakwa’s new book, The Culture of the Second Cold War (2025). But conversation touched also on Australia’s role in the conflict, the 80th anniversary of the United Nations Charter, and the 40th anniversary of the start of Mikahil Gorbachev’s leadership of the Soviet Union, which led to the end of the First Cold War.

Do check the interview out on my YouTube channel tomorrow and make sure to hit the like button there (to boost it in the algorithm) and share it with your network.

Links to Richard Sakwa's books discussed in this video are:

• The Culture of the Second Cold War (2025)

• The Lost Peace: How We Failed to Prevent a Second Cold War (2024)

• Frontline Ukraine: Crisis in the Borderlands (2014)

• Russian Politics and Society 5th edition (2020)

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❤️🙏

Jeff