Not One Inch

“Sarotte has the receipts, as it were: her authoritative tale draws on thousands of memos, letters, briefs, and other once secret documents—including many that have never been published before—which both fill in and complicate settled narratives on both sides.”—Joshua Yaffa, New Yorker

“Prize-winning historian Mary Elise Sarotte . . . charts all the private discussions within the western alliance and with Russia over enlargement and reveals Russia as powerless to slow the ratchet effect of the opening of Nato’s door.”—Patrick Wintour, The Guardian

“Sarotte is the unofficial dean of ‘end of Cold War’ studies. . . . With her latest book, she tackles head-on the not-controversial-at-all questions about NATO’s eastward growth and the effect it had on Russia’s relations with the west. I look forward to the contretemps this book will inevitably produce.”—Daniel W. Drezner, Washington Post

“‘Not one inch to the east’ . . . [is] a history so often repeated that it’s practically conventional wisdom. Mary Sarotte . . . [describes] what actually happened [between the US and Russia], and how both the reality and distortion really shape today’s events.”—Max Fisher, New York Times, from “The Interpreter” newsletter

“A riveting account of Nato enlargement and its contribution to the present confrontation. Sarotte tells the story with great narrative and analytical flair, admirable objectivity, and an attention to detail that many of us who thought we knew the history have forgotten or never knew.”—Rodric Braithwaite, Financial Times

“Masterful and exhaustively researched. . . . For this well-written and pacy book, [Sarotte] has uncovered previously unpublished details of former president Bill Clinton’s role in deciding Europe’s fate.”—Con Coughlin, Sunday Telegraph

“Highly detailed, thoroughly researched, and briskly written.”—Fred Kaplan, New York Review of Books

“There’s no one who has researched the relevant sources more thoroughly than historian Mary E. Sarotte, who has just published Not One Inch . . . successfully reconstructing the most significant days [in NATO expansion].”—Stefan Kornelius, Süddeutsche Zeitung

“Sarotte weaves together the most engaging and carefully documented account of this period in East-West diplomacy currently available.”—Andrew Moravcsik, Foreign Affairs

“Not One Inch is the best history to date of how American and Russian leaders went from the early post–Cold War world where dreams seemed unnecessary to our current one, in which dreams seem out of reach.”—Fritz Bartel, Journal of Contemporary History

Selected as a Foreign Affairs Best Book of 2021

“The paramount influence of domestic politics on foreign policy [is] Sarotte’s forte, and she incisively portrays Clinton’s hillbilly takeover of Washington and the Monica Lewinsky affair’s impact on NATO and Russia policy. She excels at sketches of European leaders, too, especially Helmut Kohl, nailing his folksiness and sublime skill at self-promotion. . . . To see political actors who were venal and mistake-prone yet effective is what makes her history so compelling.”—Stephen Kotkin, Times Literary Supplement

“Russia’s war against Ukraine is an aftershock of the earthquake of 1989–9 . . . [when] two questions dominated European security discussions. . . . The first was about how to integrate Russia into a new world order. The second was about how far, if at all, to stretch the boundaries of NATO membership into eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet states. These questions lie at the heart of M. E. Sarotte’s remarkable book on geopolitics in the final decade of the last century.”—Robert Service, Literary Review

“Sarotte’s historical narrative is backed up by extensive source material. . . . The book excels in its extensive investigation of high-tension moments in the debate over NATO enlargement. . . . Indispensable for readers interested in history and international relations.”—Maria Papageorgiou, International Affairs

“Multi-archival, multi-lingual, and multi-level research paired with Sarotte’s gripping narration makes Not One Inch a new centrepiece of debate for academics and policymakers alike. . . . The historiography of the 1990s is indebted to the groundwork she has laid.”—Bradley Reynolds, Cold War History

“Not One Inch is the best history to date of how American and Russian leaders went from the early post-Cold War world where dreams seemed unnecessary to our current one, in which dreams seem out of reach.”—Fritz Bartel, Journal of Contemporary History

“Sarotte traces the difficult course of Russia’s relations with Europe and the United States during the decade which followed the fall of the Berlin wall in 1989. . . . The story has been told before, but never so fully or so well. In a remarkable historical coup, Sarotte has persuaded the German foreign ministry to open its archives to her, and the Americans to declassify thousands of documents previously closed to researchers.”—Jonathan Sumption, Spectator

"[Sarotte's] nuanced account, based on new evidence, shows that the US never made a promise to Russia that Nato’s borders would move ‘not one inch’ eastwards. Sarotte doesn’t absolve the US from blame, but this should be read by those who tend to heap most blame for the Russian invasion on the west."—Irish Independent 'Best Eight Politics Books of the Year'

 

“Sarotte’s work offers a nuanced, well-founded and comprehensive interpretation of American-Russian relations and the European security architecture after 1989.”—Lukas Baake, sehepunkte

2022 Arthur Ross Silver medal winner, sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations

Shortlisted for the 2022 Cundill History Prize 

“A riveting account of fateful choices to expand NATO and their consequences for relations with Russia today.”—Graham Allison, author of Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides’s Trap?

“Sarotte deftly unpacks one of the most important strategic moves of the post–Cold War Era: the decision to enlarge NATO. Her detailed history of the 1990s is groundbreaking, and her assessment of the impacts of NATO expansion on European security is balanced and nuanced. A major accomplishment and a must-read.”—Charles A. Kupchan, Georgetown University and the Council on Foreign Relations

“Not One Inch will be considered the best-documented and best-argued history of the NATO expansion during the crucial 1989–1999 period.”—Norman Naimark, author of Stalin and the Fate of Europe: The Postwar Struggle for Sovereignty

“Sarotte explores how and why NATO expanded and relations with Russia deteriorated in the post–Cold War world. It is an important book, well documented and told.”—Joseph Nye Jr., author of Do Morals Matter? Presidents and Foreign Policy from FDR to Trump

“A marvelous and timely book. This is history that policymakers, scholars, and pundits need to read right now.”—Anne-Marie Slaughter, CEO, New America