Cold War Perceptions

Cold War Perceptions
Author: Elena Dragomir
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 290
Release: 2015-01-12
Genre: History
ISBN: 1443873039

This book investigates Romania’s early 1960s change in policy towards the Soviet Union, focusing on two questions in particular: namely, what actually changed and why this change occurred. Drawing from recently declassified archive materials, this book utilises a perceptual approach and a paradigm which argues that post-war Romania allied not against the threat, but with the (perceived) threat – the USSR. Focusing on the proximate causes triggering this policy change, it investigates the emergence of Romania’s opposition to the USSR predominantly through two case studies – the CMEA reform process and the Sino-Soviet dispute. The book focuses on the period between 1960 and 1964, between Romania’s first categorical (albeit non-public and indirect) opposition to the USSR and the issuing of the declaration marking Romania’s first public and official (although indirect) acknowledgement of disagreements with the USSR. This book examines the proximate causes of Romania’s policy change towards the Soviet Union and their roots in Romanian leaders’ perceptions of the threats posed to the nation’s interests by various specific Soviet policies, such as the attempts to impose the CMEA integration or a strong collective riposte against China. Through its findings, the book provides new research perspectives on Romanian-Soviet post-war relations and on the role of the leaders’ beliefs in Romania’s foreign policy choices. It will also serve as a starting point for a more detailed understanding of the unusual present-day relations between Romania and the Russian Federation.

The Elusive Balance

The Elusive Balance
Author: William Curti Wohlforth
Publisher: Cornell University Press
Total Pages: 334
Release: 2023-08-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1501738089

Concentrating on the period between 1945 and 1989, The Elusive Balance reevaluates Soviet and U.S. perceptions of the balance of power. William Curti Wohlforth uses a comparative and long-term approach to chart the diplomatic history of relations between the two countries. He offers new interpretations of the onset, course, and end of the Cold War, and the motivations behind Soviet behavior.

War Plans and Alliances in the Cold War

War Plans and Alliances in the Cold War
Author: Vojtech Mastny
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 318
Release: 2013-04-15
Genre: History
ISBN: 1136011900

This essential new volume reviews the threat perceptions, military doctrines, and war plans of both the NATO alliance and the Warsaw Pact during the Cold War, as well as the position of the neutrals, from the post-Cold War perspective. Based on previously unknown archival evidence from both East and West, the twelve essays in the book focus on the potential European battlefield rather than the strategic competition between the superpowers. They present conclusions about the nature of the Soviet threat that could previously only be speculated about and analyze the interaction between military matters and politics in the alliance management on both sides, with implications for the present crisis of the Western alliance. This new book will be of much interest for students of the Cold War, strategic history and international relations history, as well as all military colleges.

Russia in the Wake of the Cold War

Russia in the Wake of the Cold War
Author: Dorothy Horsfield
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 229
Release: 2017-05-30
Genre: History
ISBN: 1498552188

Amid widespread and increasing alarm in Western strategic and foreign policy circles following Russia’s capture of Crimea, support for rebels in Ukraine, and military intervention in Syria, this study provides a timely and sophisticated analysis of the nature and intentions of post-Soviet government under President Vladimir Putin. Based on both Russian and non-Russian sources, this book examines the enduring Cold War legacies underpinning Western perceptions of contemporary Russia. It analyzes the ways in which the West has interpreted and reacted to Russia’s domestic authoritarianism and foreign policy behavior and argues for diplomatic engagement based on liberal pluralism.

The Cold War

The Cold War
Author: Jussi M. Hanhimäki
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 718
Release: 2004
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780199272808

The Cold War contains a selection of official and unofficial documents which provide a truly multi-faceted account of the entire Cold War era. The final selection of documents illustrates the global impact of the Cold War to the present day, and establishes links between the Cold War and the events of 11th September 2001.

The Soviet Union and Cold War Neutrality and Nonalignment in Europe

The Soviet Union and Cold War Neutrality and Nonalignment in Europe
Author: Mark Kramer
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 645
Release: 2021-03-22
Genre: History
ISBN: 179363193X

The Soviet Union and Cold War Neutrality and Nonalignment in Europe examines how the neutral European countries and the Soviet Union interacted after World War II. Amid the Cold War division of Europe into Western and Eastern blocs, several long-time neutral countries abandoned neutrality and joined NATO. Other countries remained neutral but were still perceived as a threat to the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence. Based on extensive archival research, this volume offers state-of-the-art essays about relations between Europe’s neutral states and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and how these relations were perceived by other powers.

Cold War Crucible

Cold War Crucible
Author: Hajimu Masuda
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Total Pages: 397
Release: 2015-02-09
Genre: History
ISBN: 0674598474

After World War II, the major powers faced social upheaval at home and anticolonial wars around the globe. Alarmed by conflict in Korea that could change U.S.–Soviet relations from chilly to nuclear, ordinary people and policymakers created a fantasy of a bipolar Cold War world in which global and domestic order was paramount, Masuda Hajimu shows.

The Cold War in the Classroom

The Cold War in the Classroom
Author: Barbara Christophe
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 471
Release: 2019-10-23
Genre: Education
ISBN: 3030119998

This book is open access under a CC BY 4.0 license. This book explores how the socially disputed period of the Cold War is remembered in today’s history classroom. Applying a diverse set of methodological strategies, the authors map the dividing lines in and between memory cultures across the globe, paying special attention to the impact the crisis-driven age of our present has on images of the past. Authors analysing educational media point to ambivalence, vagueness and contradictions in textbook narratives understood to be echoes of societal and academic controversies. Others focus on teachers and the history classroom, showing how unresolved political issues create tensions in history education. They render visible how teachers struggle to handle these challenges by pretending that what they do is ‘just history’. The contributions to this book unveil how teachers, backgrounding the political inherent in all memory practices, often nourish the illusion that the history in which they are engaged is all about addressing the past with a reflexive and disciplined approach.

Reagan and Gorbachev

Reagan and Gorbachev
Author: Jack Matlock
Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
Total Pages: 402
Release: 2005-11-08
Genre: History
ISBN: 0812974891

“[Matlock’s] account of Reagan’s achievement as the nation’s diplomat in chief is a public service.”—The New York Times Book Review “Engrossing . . . authoritative . . . a detailed and reliable narrative that future historians will be able to draw on to illuminate one of the most dramatic periods in modern history.”—Los Angeles Times Book Review In Reagan and Gorbachev, Jack F. Matlock, Jr., a former U.S. ambassador to the U.S.S.R. and principal adviser to Ronald Reagan on Soviet and European affairs, gives an eyewitness account of how the Cold War ended. Working from his own papers, recent interviews with major figures, and unparalleled access to the best and latest sources, Matlock offers an insider’s perspective on a diplomatic campaign far more sophisticated than previously thought, waged by two leaders of surpassing vision. Matlock details how Reagan privately pursued improved U.S.-U.S.S.R. relations even while engaging in public saber rattling. When Gorbachev assumed leadership, however, Reagan and his advisers found a willing partner in peace. Matlock shows how both leaders took risks that yielded great rewards and offers unprecedented insight into the often cordial working relationship between Reagan and Gorbachev. Both epic and intimate, Reagan and Gorbachev will be the standard reference on the end of the Cold War, a work that is critical to our understanding of the present and the past.

The Global Cold War

The Global Cold War
Author: Odd Arne Westad
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 388
Release: 2005-10-24
Genre: History
ISBN: 0521853648

The Cold War shaped the world we live in today - its politics, economics, and military affairs. This book shows how the globalization of the Cold War during the last century created the foundations for most of the key conflicts we see today, including the War on Terror. It focuses on how the Third World policies of the two twentieth-century superpowers - the United States and the Soviet Union - gave rise to resentments and resistance that in the end helped topple one superpower and still seriously challenge the other. Ranging from China to Indonesia, Iran, Ethiopia, Angola, Cuba, and Nicaragua, it provides a truly global perspective on the Cold War. And by exploring both the development of interventionist ideologies and the revolutionary movements that confronted interventions, the book links the past with the present in ways that no other major work on the Cold War era has succeeded in doing.