Dimitri Simes was born in the USSR. Later, after emigrating to the United States, he became a key advisor to former president Richard Nixon and accompanied him on several trips to the USSR and Russia. Since Nixon's death he has traveled there frequently on his own. He has watched the collapse of the USSR and the emergence of Russia.

And now, in After the Collapse, Simes articulates his concern that the United States is mismanaging its relationship with Russia by focusing on the short-term and by patronizing Russia rather than treating it with hardheaded pragmatism based on U.S. national interests. After the Collapse is filled with insights into Russia's geopolitical thinking, as well as our own, and contains important information about some of the key political figures who are shaping that country's destiny.