Sergey Radchenko: podcast appearances and interviews

Sergey S. Radchenko is a Soviet-born British historian specializing in the Cold War, with a focus on Sino-Soviet relations and Soviet foreign policy. He serves as the Wilson E. Schmidt Distinguished Professor at the Henry A. Kissinger Center for Global Affairs at Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies and is a visiting professor at Cardiff University. Radchenko has held academic positions at institutions including Aberystwyth University, University of Nottingham Ningbo China, and East China Normal University in Shanghai. His work emphasizes the importance of legitimacy and recognition in foreign policy, with his recent book titled To Run the World: the Kremlin's Cold War Bid for Global Power published by Cambridge University Press in 2025. Born in 1980 in Primorsky Krai and raised in Korsakov, Sakhalin Oblast, he lived in the United States as a youth after moving there in 1995 as part of the FLEX/FSA exchange program. Radchenko studied at the London School of Economics and Political Science, earning a BSc in International Relations in 2001 and a PhD in International History in 2005. His doctoral thesis on Sino-Soviet relations became the book Two Suns in the Heavens: the Sino-Soviet Struggle for Supremacy, 1962-67. His academic career has included positions at the National University of Mongolia, Pittsburg State University, and the London School of Economics, before moving to Cardiff University and subsequently Johns Hopkins SAIS. Fluent in English, Russian, Italian, Chinese Mandarin, and Mongolian, Radchenko is also a frequent contributor to outlets such as Foreign Affairs, The New York Times, and The Spectator.