2025 Lionel Gelber Prize awarded to Sergey Radchenko for To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power

munkschool.utoronto.ca/gelber | @gelberprize | #GelberPrize

• To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power (Cambridge UniversityPress)selected as the best non-fiction book published in the English language on the subject of international affairs
• The Lionel Gelber Prize is chosen annually by an international jury of journalists, practitioners and scholars, and awarded byUniversity of Toronto'sMunk School of Global Affairs& Public Policy
• High-resolution photos of the author and images of the book cover are available upon request

TORONTO,March 19, 2025/PRNewswire/ -- Judith Gelber, Chair of the Lionel Gelber Prize board, announced today that the winner of the 2025 Lionel Gelber Prize isTo Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power bySergey Radchenko, published byCambridge UniversityPress. Chosen by a jury of international journalists, practitioners and scholars, the Gelber Prize is awarded annually to the best book on international affairs published in English. The Prize is presented by theUniversity of Toronto'sMunk School of Global Affairs& Public Policy. The winner will receive$50,000.

Jury Chair and University ProfessorJanice Steinreflected"Sergey Radchenkohas written a masterpiece.To Run the Worldmade me think differently about the Cold War that took place last century and think differently about whatRussiais doing now. Rich in original material, laced with wonderful stories so beautifully told, this is a magisterial history for our times."

The winning title was selected from a shortlist of books which includedDollars and Dominion: US Bankers and the Making of a Superpower byMary Bridges(Princeton UniversityPress);The Achilles Trap:Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America's Invasion ofIraq bySteve Coll(Penguin Random House);The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism during the Second World War byTim Cook(Penguin Random House Canada); and To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement byBenjamin Nathans(Princeton UniversityPress).

The 2025 Lionel Gelber Prize was chosen by Janice Gross Stein (Jury Chair,Toronto),Francis J. Gavin (Washington),Iain Martin(London),John Bew(London) andNina Srinivasan Rathbun(Toronto). 

The Winner

To Run the World: The Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power,Sergey Radchenko(Cambridge UniversityPress)

In this panoramic new history of the conflict that defined the postwar era,Sergey Radchenkoprovides an unprecedented deep dive into the psychology of the Kremlin's decision-making. He reveals how the Soviet struggle withthe United StatesandChinareflected its irreconcilable ambitions as a self-proclaimed superpower and the leader of global revolution. This tension drove Soviet policies from Stalin's postwar scramble for territory to Khrushchev's reckless overseas adventurism and nuclear brinksmanship, Brezhnev's jockeying for influence in the third world, and Gorbachev's failed attempts to reinventMoscow'sclaims to greatness. Perennial insecurities, delusions of grandeur, and desire for recognition propelledMoscowon a headlong quest for global power, with dire consequences and painful legacies that continue to shape our world.

Sergey Radchenkois Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at SAIS Europe, and Director, Bologna Institute for Policy Research. Radchenko has an international reputation for research on the history of the Cold War. He has written on Sino-Soviet relations, on Soviet and Chinese foreign policies, on atomic diplomacy, and on Cold War crises. He is a frequent contributor to TheNew York Times, The Washington Post, Foreign Policy, National Interest, The Moscow Times, and other national and international media.

The Event

The Lionel Gelber Prize ceremony and lecture will take place at12 p.m. ETonApril 9, 2025, presented in a hybrid format by theUniversity of Toronto'sMunk School of Global Affairs& Public Policy.

To register online, visit the Lionel Gelber Prize website.

The Prize

The Lionel Gelber Prize was founded in 1989 by Canadian diplomatLionel Gelber. A cash prize of$50,000CAD is awarded to the winner. The award is presented annually by the Lionel Gelber Prize Board and the Munk School of Global Affairs& Public Policy at theUniversity of Toronto.

Contact:Lani Mae Krantz,lani.krantz@utoronto.ca, (647) 407-4384

View original content:https://www.prnewswire.com/apac/news-releases/2025-lionel-gelber-prize-awarded-to-sergey-radchenko-for-to-run-the-world-the-kremlins-cold-war-bid-for-global-power-302405221.html

SOURCE The Lionel Gelber Prize