On 24 February 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine in an escalation of the Russo-Ukraine conflict that began eight years earlier. But Russia’s recent rise on the world’s stage began long before that historic date.

After the fall of communism, politicians, professors and the public thought that democracy would spread to Eastern Europe and that these countries would share European values and beliefs. The EU, NATO and a host of NGOs set about encouraging this glorious future, expanding membership of the great institutions and sending emissaries to the east. The failure to achieve this is one of the most ironic aspects of the story of Western ambition since the end of the Cold War. And all concerned underestimated the effect on Russia.

The fledgling Russian democracy broke down and Vladimir Putin's personal dictatorship flourished, enhanced by the most corrupt form of oligarchic capitalism. This occurred while Russia was painfully isolated, removed from the larger institutions and communities that offered status and security. Every condescending reminder that Russia was a Power of the second rank exacerbated a grievous sense of loss. And the direct heirs of state – whether in the fighting services, the secret intelligence services or the diplomatic service – suffered the humiliation innumerable slights: constant reminders of the indignity of their country’s sudden impoverishment and impotence.

This story, of European pride and pathological Russian resentment, is what lies behind the war in Ukraine. In Hubris, Jonathan Haslam, one of the world’s greatest experts on Russian foreign policy and espionage, examines one of the most intractable issues of our time.