Aaron Mate

The hotly anticipated debut from an award-winning journalist reveals the hidden story of the US-Russia proxy war in Ukraine. In this bombshell investigation, years in the making, Aaron Maté exposes Washington’s professed support for Ukrainian sovereignty and democracy as a sham. Building on the rigorous, fearless reporting that has established him as a leading independent journalist, Maté irrefutably documents how the US and its NATO allies have meddled in Ukraine with the real aim of weakening and destabilizing Russia. In pursuit of this aggressive geopolitical design, successive US administrations exploited Ukraine’s internal divisions and sabotaged every chance for compromise while relentlessly backing Russia into a corner. Gambling with the global economy and risking nuclear war, US planners then provoked and prolonged an illegal Russian invasion that has had catastrophic consequences—for the Ukrainian people above all. Washington’s cynical foreign policy did not just detonate peace in Europe but also deranged politics at home. Controversies around Russia and Ukraine played a pivotal role in three consecutive US presidential campaigns, driving the national hysteria known as “Russiagate” as well as the first impeachment of Donald Trump. With Trump's re-election pledge to broker peace still elusive, Maté presents a groundbreaking account of how the Russia-Ukraine conflict came to be, and how a brutal proxy war with existential stakes for humanity can finally be resolved.

“This penetrating study asks whether the actual evidence concerning alleged Russian interference in the US elections of 2016 justifies the enormous hue and cry it has elicited … A highly instructive inquiry into our current malaise.” — Noam ChomskyCold War, Hot War upends conventional thinking about the defining story of the Trump era—the supposed threat of Russia to American democracy —and offers revelatory insight about the U. S. political and media culture in which it arose. Drawing on his writing for The Nation, Real Clear Investigations, The Grayzone, and original reporting for this book, journalist Aaron Mate offers a rigorous, and mordantly entertaining account of how and why supposed Russian interference in US elections became what Mother Jones described as "the biggest scandal in American history." Russiagate reporting is a densely populated field. But, unlike other accounts, this book sidesteps the inflammatory speculation shared by Democrat and Republican talking points. Instead, Mate raises two questions that no major work has previously addressed: Do the facts about Russiagate match what we have been led to believe? And, if not, why has it become one of the biggest news stories of recent years? Russiagate, Mate argues, is not a genuine "scandal" based on the merits, but a kind of Privilege Protection Racket: a product of the interests—and entrenched dysfunctions— of those in power. This is not some reverse conspiracy theory of "Deep State" subterfuge. Cold War, Hot War brilliantly exposes the way the Russiagate phenomenon reflects the common elite interests of both liberals and conservative. In short, Russiagate is a pathology of the privileged.

“This penetrating study asks whether the actual evidence concerning alleged Russian interference in the US elections of 2016 justifies the enormous hue and cry it has elicited … A highly instructive inquiry into our current malaise.” — Noam ChomskyCold War, Hot War upends conventional thinking about the defining story of the Trump era—the supposed threat of Russia to American democracy —and offers revelatory insight about the U. S. political and media culture in which it arose. Drawing on his writing for The Nation, Real Clear Investigations, The Grayzone, and original reporting for this book, journalist Aaron Mate offers a rigorous, and mordantly entertaining account of how and why supposed Russian interference in US elections became what Mother Jones described as "the biggest scandal in American history." Russiagate reporting is a densely populated field. But, unlike other accounts, this book sidesteps the inflammatory speculation shared by Democrat and Republican talking points. Instead, Mate raises two questions that no major work has previously addressed: Do the facts about Russiagate match what we have been led to believe? And, if not, why has it become one of the biggest news stories of recent years? Russiagate, Mate argues, is not a genuine "scandal" based on the merits, but a kind of Privilege Protection Racket: a product of the interests—and entrenched dysfunctions— of those in power. This is not some reverse conspiracy theory of "Deep State" subterfuge. Cold War, Hot War brilliantly exposes the way the Russiagate phenomenon reflects the common elite interests of both liberals and conservative. In short, Russiagate is a pathology of the privileged.

A widely recognized expert on the unfolding crisis in Syria here melds reportage, analysis, and history in an accessible overview of events leading up to the toppling of the Assad regime and the fragile prospects for peace in its wake. How did the Syrian regime fall? Gradually, then all at once. In December 2024, the long and bloody stalemate in Syria broke down. In a transformation breathtaking for its suddenness and speed, President Bashar al-Assad, the beating heart of Arab authoritarianism, fled to Russia, his dungeons emptying as rebels overcame the Syrian army with scarcely a fight. Euphoria at the collapse of a government people never voted for was tempered by fear for the future. The victorious insurgents were supported by outside powers and had a track record of brutality comparable to Assad’s in addition to religious fanaticism. Syrians—whose fragile, cosmopolitan mosaic has been repeatedly shattered by foreign-backed sectarians—faced rule by an avowedly Islamist regime that pledged to break with its past and show tolerance to all religious communities. In this illuminating and concise survey, Charles Glass shows how Assad’s misrule, Sunni fundamentalism, and Western deceit combined to create and prolong the Syrian disaster, which since 2011 has claimed more than two hundred thousand lives and driven more than eight million people from their homes. Glass has reported extensively from the Middle East and travelled frequently in Syria for more than fifty years. Here he melds reportage, analysis, and history to provide an accessible overview of the origins and permutations defining the conflict, situating it clearly in the broader crises of the region. In this new and thoroughly revised edition of his earlier Syria Burning, Glass brings the story to the present, showing how we got here and what a post-Assad settlement might bring.

Why is it so difficult to advocate for Palestine in Canada and what can we learn from the movement's successes? This account of Palestine solidarity activism in Canada grapples with these questions through a wide-ranging exploration of the movement's different actors, approaches and fields of engagement, along with its connections to different national and transnational struggles against racism, imperialism and colonialism. Led by a coalition of students, labour unions, church groups, left wing activists, progressive presses, human rights organizations, academic associations and Palestinian and Jewish community groups, Palestinesolidarity activism is on the rise in Canada and Canadians are more aware of the issues than ever before. Palestine solidarity activists are also under siege as never before. The movement advocating for Palestinian rights is forced to contend with relentless political condemnation, media blackouts, administrative roadblocks, coordinated smear campaigns, individual threats, legal intimidation and institutional silencing. Through this book and the experiences of the contributing authors in it, many seasoned veterans of the movement, Advocating for Palestine in Canada offers an indispensable and often first-hand view into the complex social and historical forces at work in one of our era's most urgent debates, and one which could determine the course of what it means to be Canadian going forward.