{"id":1482,"date":"2025-04-01T00:46:45","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T00:46:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/?post_type=furman-update&p=1482"},"modified":"2025-07-29T19:46:21","modified_gmt":"2025-07-29T19:46:21","slug":"russia-china-cold-war-global-power","status":"publish","type":"furman-update","link":"https:\/\/www.furman.edu\/academics\/tocqueville-program\/lectures\/russia-china-cold-war-global-power\/","title":{"rendered":"Lecture Summary, Sergey Radchenko: \u201cThe Russia Problem with an Eye to China\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cTo attain their aims, the former [America] relies on personal interest and gives free scope to the unguided strength and common sense of individuals.<\/span><\/h5>\n
The latter [Russia] in a sense concentrates the whole power of society in one man.<\/span><\/h5>\n
One has freedom as the principal means of action; the other has servitude.<\/span><\/h5>\n
Their point of departure is different and their paths diverse; nevertheless, each seems called by some secret design of Providence one day to hold in its hands the destinies of half the world\u201d (<\/span>Democracy in America<\/span><\/i>, p. 413).<\/span><\/h5>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Cold War Echoes, Modern Stakes: Russia, China, and the Future of Global Power<\/b><\/h2>\n

Sergey Radchenko gave an illuminating talk at our March event last week on the topic of \u201cAmerica\u2019s Role in the World.\u201d Radchenko is the Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. He is a native of Sakhalin Island, Russia, and was educated in the US, Hong Kong, and the UK, where he received his PhD at the London School of Economics.<\/span><\/p>\n

Before he joined the Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), Radchenko worked and lived in Mongolia, China, and Wales. He has written extensively on the Cold War, nuclear history, and on Russian and Chinese foreign and security policies. He has served as a Global Fellow and a Public Policy Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center and as the Zi Jiang Distinguished Professor at East China Normal University (Shanghai).<\/span><\/p>\n

Radchenko\u2019s books include <\/span>Two Suns in the Heavens: The Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy, 1962\u20131967<\/span><\/i> (2009) and <\/span>Unwanted Visionaries: The Soviet Failure in Asia at the End of the Cold War<\/span><\/i> (2013). His most recent book, <\/span>To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power<\/span><\/i><\/a>, won <\/span>the <\/span>2025 Lionel Gelber prize<\/b>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Watch the video of Radchenko’s lecture:<\/p>\n