Provoked by Scott Horton
A rigorous analysis of U.S. foreign policy and the Path to our new Cold War
Navigating a contentious geopolitical landscape rife with covert interests, Horton delivers a compelling analysis exposing the duplicity of U.S. foreign policy and the calamitous fallout it continues to perpetuate today. American author Scott Horton is the director of The Libertarian Institute, and host of Antiwar Radio, where he has reported on international affairs since 2003. Rooted in over 7,000 citations from declassified documents, interviews, media reports, and findings from the United Nations, Scott Horton’s latest book, Provoked, aims to deconstruct the specious claims of Western media and uncover the underhanded actions that instigated America’s new Cold War.
The book follows successive U.S. presidential administrations, starting with the George H.W. Bush administration, and their negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev following the dissolution of the U.S.S.R. Horton primarily follows a chronological path, occasionally shifting forward or backward in time to provide context or reveal relevant connections. Although the content is cogent and exhaustive, the book reads like a concatenation of note cards, with oddly subtitled paragraphs and occasional satirical remarks. The scarcity of editorial commentary and the lack of visuals (maps1, images, graphs, or polls) make for a rather dry reading experience. Despite this, the book delivers a flood of credible accounts and compelling details, bound to keep shocked readers turning the page.
Delving into the dissolution of Yugoslavia, Horton cuts through the hypocrisy of the Clinton administration and the unsanctioned bombing campaign of 1999. He then smoothly transitions into the war on terrorism of the ‘90s and ‘00s, suggesting that CIA-funded Jihadist groups during the Soviet-Afghan War, along with the backing of Islamic militant groups during the Kosovo War, provided fertile ground for a multinational Jihadist movement to grow and spread throughout the region, leading to terrorist attacks worldwide. Instead of working in conjunction to stifle these murderous groups, Putin and Bush continued to butt heads as they simultaneously grappled for hegemony in the Caucasus region.
In his criticism of NATO expansionism, Horton does not discriminate in his attacks on both neoconservatives, such as Donald Rumsfeld and John Bolton, and corrupt Democrats, including Hillary Clinton and Victoria Nuland. He presents a thorough exposé of revolutions in Georgia, Ukraine, and other former soviet states, unveiling the incentives and unscrupulous forces that aided them. From big-time donors like George Soros, who proudly boasts of his ability to manifest change, to the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), which advocates for fair, free elections while overtly meddling in them, the evidence is damning.
After establishing the foundation for the current heightened tensions between Russia and the West, the final 170 pages are dedicated solely to the developments, storylines, and leaks emerging from the Russo-Ukrainian war between March 2022 and October 2024. Horton condemns Putin’s actions: “This does not justify what Putin did in response, or the worsening problems that are almost certain to result from his war,” while highlighting alternatives Putin could have pursued instead of invading Ukraine. He also investigates why promising peace deals failed early in the war and continue to be discouraged by Western powers. As an anti-war advocate, Horton acknowledges his bias while also providing a convincing argument for a reduction in U.S. intervention.
Critics hoping to dismiss this work as “Russian Propaganda” will be disappointed to find their hackneyed rhetoric cited and deflected with an array of verified records, testimonies, and legal documents to support his arguments. However, the deliberate intention to shape the book around the errors of American policymakers will likely limit its audience.
Poised to be a seminal historical account of ongoing affairs, Provoked guides readers through the missteps of hawkish U.S. officials, the nefarious involvement of NGOs in notorious color revolutions, and the concerted effort to destabilize the Caucasus region in favor of the West. Horton not only casts doubt on the shallow slogan of 'unprovoked attack'—routinely trotted out by politicians with antagonistic motives—but also erodes the spurious moral and democratic claims made to defend interventionist actions. Despite its textbook-like structure and ideological lean, Provoked succeeds as a pertinent and invaluable resource for understanding modern-day conflicts through a well-contextualized lens.
For those interested in Provoked: How Washington Started the New Cold War with Russia and the Catastrophe in Ukraine by Scott Horton, you can order a copy here
There are a few basic maps in the appendix, but 1) they would be better utilized within the text and 2) more detailed graphics marking the locations of key events or territories would be more useful.