First published 2018
Career intelligence officer Malcolm Nance dissects Vladimir Putin's master strategy to dismantle Western democracy through the 2016 American election. Nance argues that Russia executed history's most successful intelligence operation by installing Donald Trump as president through blackmail, espionage, assassination, and psychological warfare. The author demonstrates how Putin's spy agencies weaponized cyber attacks, propaganda, and media manipulation to fracture democratic institutions from within. Using classified Russian strategy documents and interviews with espionage professionals, Nance traces this campaign from Cold War origins through its present execution. He reveals how Russia cultivated right-wing extremists across America and Europe while grooming Trump as an asset since 2010. The book exposes Putin's broader goal of destroying NATO, the European Union, and the post-1945 world order that preserved global freedom. Nance provides readers with professional intelligence analysis of ongoing Russian hybrid warfare tactics and warns of future attacks on American institutions and international alliances.
Genres: history, political-science, non-fiction, 21st-century, espionage, current-affairs, academic, american-history
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: conspiracy-theory, investigative-journalism
Setting: America, Europe, NATO, Russia, Western Democracy
Period: Cold War, 2016
352 pages · Hardcover · Legacy Lit