Visiting Assistant Professor of Government David W. Rivera published a review of Russia’s Coercive Diplomacy: Energy, Cyber, and Maritime Policy as New Sources of Power in the current issue of Perspectives on Politics, one of the flagship journals of the American Political Science Association.
Russia’s Coercive Diplomacy, by Ryan C. Maness and Brandon Valeriano, explores Russia’s use of two unconventional power resources — cyber weaponry and energy exports — in conflicts on the territory of the former Soviet Union. According to Rivera, the authors’ larger purpose is to convince scholars and policymakers that coercion and power politics are ineffective and even counterproductive.
In his review, Rivera comments that even though Maness and Valeriano fail to provide compelling evidence in support of their central thesis, their chapter on cyber warfare and a chapter on the complicated multilateral diplomacy surrounding ownership of the Arctic both contain a vast amount of useful information. He said these chapters represent good places to start for those seeking a quick education on either subject.
