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It wasn't very long ago when U.S. policymakers relied on a species of grand strategist known as the Sovietologist. It was the Cold War, and the strategies for dealing with the USSR ranged from containment to rollback, to détente and peaceful bridge-building. Zbigniew Brzezinski formulated the latter. President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser was an ardent anti-communist with a pragmatic streak, whose goal was to accelerate the breakup of the Soviet Empire. He also supported Palestinian autonomy, and after the Cold War, Brzezinski backed NATO expansion in Eastern Europe while criticizing the excesses of the global war on terror.

In this episode, the Financial Times' Edward Luce discusses his timely biography, Zbig: The Life of Zbigniew Brzezinski, America's Great Power Prophet.

Also read:

Martin Di Caro's review of Luce's book for Responsible Statecraft.