Provoked:

How Washington started the new Cold War with Russia and the catastrophe in Ukraine

by Scott Horton

Provoked by Scott Horton is a thought-provoking and fact-driven interpretation of the lead up to the invasion of Ukraine by the Russian Federation. Written from the perspective that the United States of America, and how its proxy ‘empire’ – NATO, has spent the last 40 years provoking Russia (and former USSR) into invading a sovereign neighbouring nation. Provoked takes the intriguing structure of being divided into Presidents, from Bush Sr to Biden. Short and easy-to-digest sections break up each chapter to culminate the opinion that the invasion of Ukraine was provoked. Some may argue, coming to this conclusion is almost understandable, all while Horton is by no means justifying the invasion.

Provoked is a clear to decipher read. However, amongst the natural flow of chapters and sections that follow Presidential chronology of events, I feel that Horton could provide some deeper level analysis. As a reader, you may often find yourself jumping back to a prior section to better understand what is currently being read – perhaps this is a reader’s personal pro or con to the formatting of the book being led by chronological order than a more focused, theme-based structure.

That being said, Horton has clearly done his research and considers himself an expert in this field with his strong and consistent referencing amongst his unwavering opinions. This is made more evident by the numerous footnotes taking up each page. On reflection, it would be worth considering whether this piece is more swayed to one bias or another due to heavy reliance on Western-centric sources. Taking the book title into consideration, this could be expected. However, I would have found it interesting to see this challenged by also investigating more Eastern-centric sources on how the events in history were viewed by former USSR agencies.

While I find maps are often a great supporting visual, I found the placement of them to only be found in the appendix an interesting and less engaging choice. There are occasions where it would have been beneficial for the reader, to show diagrams and illustrations for key events within the book. For example, under the Rush’n Attack chapter, it describes the presumed strategy of the Russian axis of advance into Ukraine as well as their logic behind not consolidating their forces.

If you are on the hunt for a read full of highly in-depth analysis, Provoked may be your next pensive read. There is no denying that this is a highly opinionated read, but as I settled amongst the structure of Horton’s writing, that became what I expected and learnt to enjoy. I feel an example of this approach to his work can be highlighted in the following excerpt alone: “It seems likely that the Biden administration really did want this war to happen, perhaps even attempted to deliberately provoke it. Their strategy was to warn Putin of economic consequences if he invaded, while still refusing the kind of real negotiations that were necessary to avert the conflict. At the very least, the administration saw great advantage in the war if they could not prevent it.” 

Despite its perhaps daunting size of 650+ pages, the reader can easily break down this interpretation down into sections to pick up and put down as they please, which I would recommend doing. Whilst I may not personally always necessarily agree with all points presented, this book kept me intrigued and fascinated from beginning to end.  

Capt Peter Attrill

Published by: The Libertarian Institute, 16 Nov. 2024. 690

pages. ISBN-13: 978-1733647373