Kremlin-focused book ‘To Run the World’ wins $50K Lionel Gelber Prize

TORONTO — A book that examines decisions made within the Kremlin in its quest to become a global superpower has won a top Canadian prize for international affairs writing.

Cold War expert Sergey Radchenko earned the Lionel Gelber Prize for “To Run the World: The Kremlin’s Cold War Bid for Global Power,” published by Cambridge University Press.

Radchenko, who is based in Bologna, Italy, has written on Sino-Soviet relations and atomic diplomacy, and is a frequent contributor to media outlets including the New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Policy and the Moscow Times.

Prize organizers praise “To Run the World” for offering “an unprecedented deep dive” into the psychology of the Kremlin’s decision-making and the political tensions that drove Soviet policies throughout history.

Jury chair Janice Stein calls it “a masterpiece” that is “rich in original material” and “a magisterial history for our times.”

The Lionel Gelber Prize ceremony and lecture will take place April 9.

The annual prize is chosen by an international jury of journalists, practitioners and scholars, and awarded by University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy.

Organizers say this year’s pick explores Soviet ambitions as a self-proclaimed superpower and the leader of global revolution.

“Perennial insecurities, delusions of grandeur, and desire for recognition propelled Moscow on a headlong quest for global power, with dire consequences and painful legacies that continue to shape our world,” prize organizers said Wednesday in a release.

Radchenko is director of the Bologna Institute for Policy Research, a division of the Johns Hopkins University School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS) in Europe.

The winner was selected from a short list that included “Dollars and Dominion: US Bankers and the Making of a Superpower” by Mary Bridges (Princeton University Press) and “The Achilles Trap: Saddam Hussein, the C.I.A., and the Origins of America’s Invasion of Iraq” by Steve Coll (Penguin Random House).

Also in the running was “The Good Allies: How Canada and the United States Fought Together to Defeat Fascism during the Second World War” by Tim Cook (Penguin Random House Canada); and “To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement” by Benjamin Nathans (Princeton University Press).

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 19, 2025.

The Canadian Press