During the administration of President Bill Clinton, Strobe Talbott, a close friend and confidante, served as Deputy Secretary of State. Historian Stephan Kieninger joins podcast editor Ron Granieri to discuss his new book, Securing Peace in Europe: Strobe Talbott, NATO and Russia after the Cold War. Kieninger explains that Talbott consistently pursued both NATO enlargement and engagement with a reformed Russia, believing these two goals were not contradictory. The discussion highlights the differing approaches between the United States and Europe in engaging with Russia, a dynamic that continues to be relevant in current events.
NATO enlargement and engaging Russia was never a contradiction for him because he thought it was possible to square the circle and to envisage a partnership between a reformed NATO and a reformed Russia.
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Stephan Kieninger is a Non-Resident Fellow at the American-German Institute and a former Global Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center. He is the author of Dynamic Détente. The United States and Europe 1964-1975 (Lanham 2016) and The Diplomacy of Détente. Cooperative Security Policies from Helmut Schmidt to George Shultz (London 2018) and his newest book Securing Peace in Europe: Strobe Talbott, NATO, and Russia After the Cold War (Columbia University Press 2025).
Ron Granieri is Professor of History and the Chair of the Department of National Security and Strategy at the U.S. Army War College and the Editor of A BETTER PEACE.
The views expressed in this presentation are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect those of the U.S. Army War College, U.S. Army, or Department of Defense.
Photo Description: Former U.S. President Bill Clinton with President Putin, Okinawa, Japan, 21 July 2000.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the President of the Russian Federation and is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License