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In July 1951, the American Midwest experienced one of its worst floods in its history up to that point, resulting in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages and the displacement of hundreds of thousands of people. While ostensibly a national issue, the natural disaster also drew the attention of hundreds of German citizens who donated to the relief effort. In the letters accompanying their donations, these Germans emphasized that they wanted to submit a token of their gratitude to the American people and begin to pay back a fraction of what they felt they owed for American humanitarian assistance in the immediate postwar era. Though the American government did not solicit these donations, it saw value in help publicising the donations and their letters. Locked in a propaganda battle with the Soviet Union, American authorities promoted these donations not only as evidence of German-American friendship, but also as evidence that their humanitarian policy at the dawn of the Cold War had achieved significant cultural, political, and diplomatic goals throughout Germany. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the significance of international borders in Europe and Northeast Asia during the Cold War (1945–1989) and after. Using the concept of 'moral hazard', the article examines what happens when great powers frequently violate the borders of neighboring countries without suffering adverse repercussions. Norms of sovereignty and territorial integrity are viable only if large countries are willing to uphold them most of the time. The Soviet Union used or threatened to use military force against East European countries on numerous occasions (1953, 1956, 1968, and 1980–1981) with impunity. The Russian Federation adopted a broadly similar policy toward neighboring countries that had been republics of the Soviet Union until 1991. Russian forces in Georgia, Moldova, Tajikistan, Belarus, and Ukraine served as instruments of Russian hegemony in those countries. Until 2014, Western governments made little or no effort to deter or counter Russian military encroachments in neighboring republics. By the principle of moral hazard, leaders in the Kremlin came to believe that they could act with a free hand in the former USSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Soviet activists in the USSR and members of the Black Panther Party in the United States emphasized the need to document the truth of domestic human rights abuses not in the land of the Cold War adversary but in their own. In the process, they contested the dominant misrepresentations of Soviet citizens and African Americans that obscured those routine human rights abuses. Members of both groups conceived of documenting this truth as essential to ultimately eliminating these domestic forms of state-sanctioned violence. They also spoke of the act of speaking the truth in word and deed as facilitating their own liberation from what they similarly identified as a devastating Soviet and American spiritual death in countries that were officially represented in the Cold War universe as the moral antithesis. The 'woke' or liberated individual was no longer a subservient, mask-wearing 'Homo Sovieticus' or 'Negro' who mouthed the lies of unbounded Soviet democracy and American freedom, but a genuine citizen and full human being who demanded respect for their human rights. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper uses critical discourse analysis and critical literacy to analyze the first in a series of literacy primers developed with US support for children in Afghanistan in the 1980s, called 'Jihad literacy'. The text is analyzed for its ideological content as related to the themes of religion, violence, and martyrdom in the historical perspective of the Cold War and the Soviet Union's invasion of Afghanistan. The paper demonstrates how the notion of 'Jihad' was subverted to promote a holy war against the Soviet invasion. The educational system supported by the US created a radical version of Islam based on violence and martyrdom, shaping the Afghan society to this day. We contend that the same or similar institutions shape current discourses as in the past and that children are the main victims of politico-economic warfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The human right to science is set out in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. The two texts, which were adopted consecutively, are similar but not identical. Conflicts in formulating the right to science in international human rights law were rooted in the ideological quarrels of the Cold War. The travaux préparatoires indicate debate about whether the right was essentially about the freedoms of scientists or about the purposes of science, including concern about abuse. Article 15(3) of the Covenant confirms recognition of 'the freedom indispensable for scientific research ... ' The Soviet Union promoted the view that scientific research must pursue progressive aims but was unsuccessful in its attempts to entrench this in the texts. UNESCO's contribution to the Declaration was insignificant but it had considerable influence on the Covenant text. In 1950 and 1951, UNESCO issued important and influential expert statements challenging 'scientific' arguments of racial supremacists, confirming in practice its own understanding of the direction that science should take. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After two decades of counterinsurgency and counterterrorism in Afghanistan and Iraq, the US military has shifted to preparing for large-scale combat operations. However, it would be a mistake to discard hard-earned lessons from these conflicts. Despite contemporary advances in technology and important differences between current US competitors and the Soviet Union, irregular warfare will play a prominent role in the new era of strategic competition. It was a prominent form of US-Soviet competition during the Cold War, is already used extensively by the United States and its competitors and remains attractive given concerns about escalation between nuclear-armed powers. Given the continued relevance of irregular warfare, we focus on two main lessons from the US experience. First, since irregular warfare is about influencing populations and achieving political goals without large-scale combat operations, influencing and working alongside the partner is the primary mission. The second lesson follows directly from the first; if irregular warfare is ultimately about achieving policy goals with an economy of military force, IW is a team sport requiring joint and interagency collaboration to be effectively implemented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union aspired to transform overseas academic institutions according to their political goals. Their attempts to impose certain values, disciplines, structures, and personnel were foiled by sabotage and indigenous traditions on the part of the local academic elite, particularly professors. The article illustrates futile revisions by both the United States and the Soviet Union at Ethiopian higher educational institutions and discusses the Cultural Cold War in terms of realism, constructivism, Americanisation, Sovietisation and response theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In 1963, at the height of the Cold War, R. W. Stewart visited the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Moscow for three months, including a side trip to a field station on the River Don. The visit followed on from discussions at scientific meetings on the topic of turbulence in fluid flows. Major theoretical advances had been made in the USSR, while Stewart's group in Canada had conducted a key observational programme in turbulent tidal currents off the coast of British Columbia. During his visit, Stewart was able to show how some Soviet observations were in accord with others after correction for instrument size and, most importantly, with Evgeny Novikov he pioneered a new approach to the theory of turbulence to allow for intermittency. His report contains observations of the style of science in the USSR in that era, as well as interesting comments on food and culture. The visit produced lasting dividends in scientific collaboration, particularly in international programmes related to climate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In January 1990, a U.S counterintelligence surveillance team supporting a priority counterespionage investigation in Munich, West Germany, became engaged in a hostile encounter that was unlike anything ever experienced. The event was recorded as an "aggressive, hostile countersurveillance effort," but with the U.S. victory in the Cold War, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the dismantlement of the State Committee for Security, the investigative record was inconclusively filed away before the applicable lessons could be captured. After 30+ years, the declassified details of the investigation and the sequence of events leading to this fateful Munich night is examined under an inductive causal analysis to deconstruct the events using a case study methodology. After a comprehensive analysis, it becomes evident that the engagement was mischaracterized, and the hostile operation had much broader implications. While the hostile engagement was a black swan event, the sequence of events in the investigation leading to this final act was a microcosm of the larger Soviet strategic disinformation, misdirection, and manipulation apparatus. Three decades after fading into obscurity under a veil of classification restrictions, counterintelligence professionals, intelligence analysts, and intelligence historians can now benefit from the still-relevant lessons and other insights from this case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses two books, "Cold War Radio: The Russian Broadcasts of the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty" by Mark Pomar and "Under the Radar: Tracking Western Radio Listeners in the Soviet Union" by R. Eugene Parta. Pomar's book focuses on the conception and development of the programs of the two Russian services and their impact on international broadcasting, U.S.-Soviet relations, Russian political and cultural history, and the end of the Cold War. Parta's book explores audience research conducted by RFE/RL, providing insights into the methods and techniques used, as well as the personalities involved. Both books are well-written and based on substantial documentation, making them valuable additions to the literature on U.S. international broadcasting. [Extracted from the article]

This paper explores the production of vernacular geological knowledge about uranium during the Cold War. In particular, it investigates uranium gathering practices in Siberia as a form of geopower exercised where Soviet citizens were encouraged to participate in geological exploration of the 'bowels of the Earth' for national benefits. This paper further discusses a novel theorization of the early Soviet understanding of the Anthropocene concept in its relation to the notion of nuclearity as formulated by Soviet scholar Vladimir Vernadsky (1863–1945). Finally, the Soviet nuclear project's legacies are analyzed through indigenous experiences of living near the uranium mine in Siberia. The material used for this research comprised a selected set of youth magazine articles and guidelines issued in the 1930s–1950s by Soviet geological agencies with the aim of promoting vernacular geological practices among Soviet citizens, as well as archival materials and field data collected from geologists and indigenous people in Transbaikalia, eastern Siberia, in 2021. This paper shows that Soviet citizens were a crucial part of the nuclear ideology and, at the same time, were treated as the means of nuclear production because of their ability to search for and extract uranium. It further shows how nuclear discourse in the Soviet Union and modern Russia has been shaped by Vernadsky's ideas about the role of nuclear power in the transformation of society. • Novel theorization of the early Soviet understanding of the Anthropocene concept as formulated by Vernadsky. • Nuclearity as a geospatial concept includes social and geographical aspects of the use and extraction of uranium. • The inclusion of all social strata into uranium-gathering practices in the Soviet Union. • The Soviet version of geopower as the idea of mineral resources as a substantial component of the national geo-body. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union implemented multiple arms control treaties that depended on National Technical Means (NTM) for verification. Since NTM included covert satellite reconnaissance systems that gathered a sizeable portion of American intelligence on the USSR, the US government kept the details about its NTM ambiguous. Consequently, US diplomats had to negotiate a verification framework dependant on NTM without compromising sensitive space-based intelligence capabilities. This article uses newly declassified documents to explore how Washington and Moscow navigated the boundaries of secrecy concerning space reconnaissance to create a robust arms control verification regime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

"Novichok" refers to a new group of nerve agents called the A-series agents. Their existence came to light in 2018 after incidents in the UK and again in 2020 in Russia. They are unique organophosphorus-based compounds developed during the Cold War in a program called Foliant in the USSR. This review is based on original chemical entities from Mirzayanov's memoirs published in 2008. Due to classified research, a considerable debate arose about their structures, and hence, various structural moieties were speculated. For this reason, the scientific literature is highly incomplete and, in some cases, contradictory. This review critically assesses the information published to date on this class of compounds. The scope of this work is to summarize all the available and relevant information, including the physicochemical properties, chemical synthesis, mechanism of action, toxicity, pharmacokinetics, and medical countermeasures used to date. The environmental stability of A-series agents, the lack of environmentally safe decontamination, their high toxicity, and the scarcity of information on post-contamination treatment pose a challenge for managing possible incidents. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay examines the engagement of the European Far Right during the Cold War with the legacy of classical geopolitics, above all the work of Mackinder, Spykman, Haushofer and Schmitt. The concerns of geopolitics with immanent spatial "realities" gave it an instrumental utility for the EFR as the latter sought to move beyond the obsessive preoccupation of interwar fascism (in its dominant German version) with factors of genetics and race. Beyond this, classical geopolitics provided conceptual and theoretical support for the EFR as it elaborated new ideological principles and political projects. On the one hand this involved a novel vision of pan-European unity that rested on the principle of continentalist autarky. On the other, with key concepts such as Heartland and Rimland, classical geopolitics offered a sophisticated but strategically flexible meta-geography of Eurasian space that was of immense value, for it could accommodate the EFR's ambivalence regarding the geographical limits of its envisioned pan-Europe and the nature of its relationship to its Eurasian neighbour, the USSR. The essay argues that while the conceptual continuities with the interwar period were vital, the deployment of classical geopolitical theory by the EFR after 1945 was driven by a logic of its own, one that was directly connected to the historical context and political realities of the Cold War. EFR ideologues used classical geopolitics essentially in order to negotiate the particular challenges of their day and to sustain and develop their own political agendas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the experiences of several thousand Jewish migrants from the Soviet Union who failed to adapt to life in Israel and moved to Western Europe during the 1970s and 1980s in an attempt to gain immigrant admission to Western countries. The difficult multi-year sojourn of these people in Europe (mainly in the Roman Metropolitan Area in Italy) highlights the nonlinear and precarious trajectories of emigration from the USSR as well as the political controversies that accompanied this population movement. At the center of analysis are the activities of Western and Israeli government agencies and international organizations that tried to restrict and inhibit the unexpected abandonment of the Israeli destination by ex-Soviet Jewish migrants. The article focuses on a contrast between the ideology and practice of transnational migrations in a divided world. Although the concepts of freedom, legality, and individual choice rhetorically framed the act of leaving the Soviet Union during the Cold War, in practice those benefits were not available to many migrants. Agencies routinely handled migrations on grounds of political calculation, in which the rights, freedoms, and well-being of the migrant were subordinated to policy objectives and institutional priorities, often without much regard for the law. The article pays special attention to the values, language, and mechanisms of political action that the former Soviet people employed in order to reach their goals in the unfamiliar Western world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

What does the decision to designate China as a "long-term strategic competitor" imply for U.S. defence strategy? To address this question, we draw on net assessment and competitive strategies, two complementary frameworks developed in the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) during the Cold War to understand and manage long-term competition with the Soviet Union, respectively. Net assessment and competitive strategies are tailored around specific competitors and follow a characteristically dialectical approach to strategic planning, based on complex, recursive calculations of move and countermove. We argue that the identification of China as a long-term strategic competitor has paved the way for an increasingly systematic application of net assessment and competitive strategies within DoD, even if obstacles to such application still remain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Cold War the United States and the Soviet Union aspired to transform overseas academic institutions according to their political goals. Their attempts to impose certain values, disciplines, structures, and personnel were foiled by sabotage and indigenous traditions on the part of the local academic elite, particularly professors. The article illustrates futile revisions by both the United States and the Soviet Union at Ethiopian higher educational institutions and discusses the Cultural Cold War in terms of realism, constructivism, Americanisation, Sovietisation and response theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the discourse on India in Bengali travelogues on Russia/the USSR. In the first half of the twentieth century, Russia attracted a particular type of Indian travellers, politically engaged individuals interested in the ongoing transformations in Russia, to learn potential lessons for India. Later, during the Cold War era, many members of India's intellectual elite travelled to the Soviet Union at the invitation of Soviet institutions and some wrote their accounts after these visits. A distinctive feature of these travelogues is the strong focus on providing readers with information regarding Soviet social and economic developments, together with frequent comments on the contrasts between the USSR and India. The article demonstrates how Bengali travel narratives on Russia are constructed around similarities and differences between the two countries, but ultimately concentrate on the challenges for India in fields such as education, poverty, agriculture, gender equality and housing. Seven travelogues were selected for this analysis. The earliest, on Revolutionary Russia, is Soumyendranath Tagore's Biplabð Rå›iy˙å (Tagore, 1930), while the most recent sample is Sunil Gangopadhyay's Rå›iy˙å Bhramaµ (Gangopadhyay, 2012 [1985]). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Military History Chronicles is the property of Policy Studies Organization and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Two ideological views on science dominated the Cold War era: one of a free and apolitical science, and the other emphasizing partisanship in science, associated with the Western and Eastern Blocs, respectively. This study offers a specific perspective of important elements belonging to these scientific positions, as it reveals their entanglement with geopolitical and socio-economic processes of the (semi)peripheral Yugoslav socialist system during the Cold War period. After the Second World War, and before its break with the USSR in 1948, Yugoslavia tended to emulate Soviet ideology in all aspects of society, including science. In the period following this break, the Yugoslav socialist regime, at least initially, leaned heavily toward the Western Bloc. By comparing Yugoslav science before and after the break with the USSR, this study provides insight into the consequences of the geopolitical shift and socio-economic transition of the Yugoslav socialist system, primarily in terms of the model of scientific organization, financing, and scientific discourse. Exposed to the dynamics of decentralization and, to a larger extent than before, market forces, Yugoslav socialism after the break with the USSR adopted a specific form, namely Socialist Self-Management. Herein, I show that this led to the emergence of novel organizational and discursive tendencies in Yugoslav science, which were compatible with certain aspects of the perspective of science as 'pure', autonomous, and apolitical. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fritz Bartel's book, "The Triumph of Broken Promises: The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism," argues that the histories of the Cold War and neoliberalism are interconnected. Bartel suggests that after World War II, both the USA and the USSR promised their citizens a better material life, resulting in a race between the two blocs. However, the oil crises in the 1970s disrupted the material basis of both growth-regimes, leading to painful domestic economic reforms and a race to break social contracts without inviting social backlash. Bartel's work offers a thought-provoking exploration of the connections between the end of the Cold War and the rise of neoliberalism. [Extracted from the article]

This article considers the Soviet Union's successful efforts to employ more women specialists in nuclear science and technology, from the Bolshevik revolution in 1917 and the Soviet atomic bomb project to the Cold War and the present. Despite their contributions to building a Cold War military machine, women rarely reached the pinnacle of the scientific enterprise due to persistent views about their lesser capabilities as specialists. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, in a vastly changed social, political, and cultural climate, the claimed socialist equality of women gave way to more traditional views of their status in Russian society. For the nuclear enterprise, this change emerged in activities that had disappeared under communism such as the annual "Miss Atom" beauty pageant, a striking departure from Soviet attempts to involve women equally in science and technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Treaty of Maastricht was signed thirty years ago, that is, on 7 February 1992, and after its ratification entered into force on 1 November 1993. It was a quantum leap into the European integration initiated after the Second World War. It constituted a basis for the creation of the European Union (EU), becoming an accelerator of the European integration and an important element of the transatlantic system of international security. Its origin and decisions rest in such contemporary events and processes as the “Autumn of Nations,” which resulted in the fall of communism in the states of Central and Eastern Europe, German reunification on 3 October 1990, the collapse of the Soviet Union in December 1991 and the global end of the Cold War. The article is aimed at analyzing the prerequisites of the genesis of the Treaty of Maastricht and showing its significance for the integration and security of Europe after the collapse of the YaltaPotsdam order and the end of the Cold War. The main thesis statement is that the Treaty of Maastricht would not have been signed and the European Union would not have been established without the fall of communism in the states of Central and Eastern Europe, the collapse of the Soviet Union and German reunification. Moreover, I believe that international situation after the Cold War would have been less stable without the Treaty of Maastricht and the EU, because the competition for leadership between reunited Germany and France would have intensified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Journal of Social Sciences Research / Sosyal Bilimler Arastirmalari Dergisi is the property of ODU Journal of Social Sciences Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Rudolf Smits (1907–1972) was a Latvian diplomat stranded in the United States after the Soviet invasion of his country in 1941. Seeking new employment, he began work at the Library of Congress later that same year. Smits labored on a number of projects in the area of government and periodical bibliography, but he found his unique place in the library profession in the creation of bibliographies and union catalogs of Soviet publications. The bibliographies and catalogs were funded by various government agencies as a result of the intensive U.S. Cold War interest in the Soviet Union. This article traces the biography and career of Rudolf Smits with a discussion of several key Slavic reference tools developed by Smits or under his supervision, including the Cyrillic Union Catalog, the Monthly List of Russian Accessions and Half a Century of Soviet Serials. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The split between the Soviet Union and China had a great impact on other Communist countries, including the Democratic Republic of Vietnam (DRV, or North Vietnam), under the leadership of the Vietnamese Workers' Party (VWP). As the rift between the PRC and the Soviet Union intensified, the VWP tried hard to balance between the two Communist powers so that it could focus on the war against the United States and the conquest of the South. Interactions between the DRV, China, and the Soviet Union highlighted the frequently complex nature of relations within the Communist world during the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the aftermath of the bloody conflict, the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR) replaced European empires to become the new superpowers. Arrested development: the Soviet Union in Ghana, Guinea, and Mali, 1955-1968; Cold War liberation: the Soviet Union and the collapse of the Portuguese empire in Africa, 1961-1975 The old, conventional narrative of the Cold War history, as a simplified East-West confrontation driven by Washington, Moscow and their respective allies, has since given way to a new international history of the Cold War. [Extracted from the article]

Intelligence analysis is inextricably linked to the CIA, where it was established and developed as a specific professional activity. Based on a short-lived experience, accumulated during World War II, the CIA's first analytical structure, the Office of Reports and Estimates (ORE), faced the difficulty of producing intelligence products on the new security environment of the early Cold War period, with the focus on the threat posed by the USSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study examined the British response to the Soviet Union's expansion and the rapid onset of the Cold War in sub-Saharan Africa in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The Soviet Union considered 'The Third World' the primary battlefield of the Cold War and took advantage of the international trend of anti-colonialism to exert pressure on the West. At the same time, the Soviet Union promised Africans economic development and improved living standards after African countries achieved independence and relentlessly disseminated anti-colonial propaganda at the United Nations and in the region. The Soviet Union's anti-colonialist propaganda offended Britain by repudiating the liberal imperial ideas that British policymakers believed in and proclaimed at the time. As Britain faced criticism of neo-colonialism, the nation moved towards decolonisation, opting to continue with an 'informal empire' backed by the United States. The spread of anti-colonialism in sub-Saharan British Africa, as African nations strove for independence, and Britain's response to this period of change should be read within a larger narrative rather than as a chapter in decolonisation history. This narrative offers clues to understanding Britain's struggle for survival post-empire. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Running along parallel tracks, Soviet diplomats and Leonid Brezhnev oversaw superpower détente, whereas the Soviet Communist Party's International Department, the Soviet state security organs, and the Soviet military pursued the Cold War in Africa. Cold War Liberation: The Soviet Union and the Collapse of the Portuguese Empire in Africa, 1961-1975 The Russian term "mezhdunarodniki", which refers to the middle-ranking Soviet experts on international affairs who helped to implement Soviet policy toward Africa, Asia, and Latin America, drives Natalia Telepneva's I Cold War Liberation: The Soviet Union and the Collapse of the Portuguese Empire in Africa, 1961-1975 i . Cold War Liberation: The Soviet Union and the Collapse of the Portuguese Empire in Africa, 1961-1975 by Natalia Telepneva. [Extracted from the article]

During the Cold War, international film festivals proliferated on both sides of the Iron Curtain. The United States and the Soviet Union recognized these festivals as important venues for "cinematic diplomacy" and the pursuit of broader foreign policy goals. This article explores how the U.S. government, together with the U.S. motion picture industry, made use of its participation in the Moscow and Karlovy Vary International Film Festivals in the 1950s and 1960s. It confirms many of the findings of earlier studies of Cold War cultural diplomacy but also expands our historical understanding of this phenomenon. Specifically, it reveals the extent of cooperation and conflict—as well as an interchangeability of roles—among public officials in Washington and private citizens in Hollywood, with implications for both the formulation at home and reception abroad of U.S. cinematic diplomacy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While the nineteenth century is known as the English Century and the twentieth century as the American Century, the 21st century we live in is called the Chinese Century, the Asian Century, the Pacific Century, the Pacific Age, and the Asia Pacific Century. The bipolar world order under the domination of the USA and the USSR, which was established with the Cold War Era after the Second World War; With the collapse of the Soviet Union, it was replaced by a unipolar world order under the leadership of the USA. However, since the beginning of the 2000s, the balance of power in the world in economic, commercial and political terms has been changing in favor of Asia; A strong argument expressed as "the rise of Asia" has been voiced by wide circles. These Asian-centered macro developments, which point to a change and transformation on a global scale, mean the end of Western domination, which lasted for hundreds of years and identified with imperialism, hegemony and colonialism, or, with a more moderate approach, curbing the West with new balances of power. In the light of this argument, this study aims to present a future projection about and a comparative analysis of the current and future situations of the two poles centered in Asia and the West, in the light of parameters such as countries' GDP ratios, global import and export amounts, military power and defense expenditures, population ratios, and cross-cutting thematic issues. The data obtained show that the thesis of the rise of Asia, which refers to the majority of the continental states, especially the People's Republic of China, is an emerging theory unless there are extraordinary developments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article focuses on the evolution of armament processes and arms control. It offers a broad perspective that encompasses arms control initiatives and international regulations throughout history, starting from the 1868 Saint Petersburg Declaration to the agreements of the post-Cold War era. A particular emphasis is placed on the processes of nuclear disarmament and control, highlighting the treaties signed between the USA and the USSR and their impacts on the nuclear balance. The importance of creating zones free from weapons of mass destruction is underlined in this process, and the challenges in the Middle East are scrutinized. In conclusion, the importance of disarmament and arms control, the progress of law, and its implementation are emphasized as crucial for the future of humanity, despite the shortcomings of major powers in these applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Throughout the duration of the Cold War and its aftermath, sub-Saharan Africa has been a hotbed of geopolitical contestation. This article examines the role of the Soviet Union and its successor state, the Russian Federation, as a major regional actor. Beginning with Soviet intervention in the Congo in the 1950s, the article posits that sub-Saharan Africa was an initially marginal region for Soviet strategists which became increasingly significant as the Cold War progressed. Soviet strategy was driven by both raw questions of geopolitical clout and a broader attempt to export its ideology to the Third World. The article elucidates the consequences of intervention from both Soviet and local perspectives, emphasising the agency of African states who were able to leverage superpower competition in pursuit of their own interests. However, the dramatic collapse of the Soviet Union resulted in a complete retreat from Africa as strategic priorities in Moscow changed rapidly. Recent Russian re-engagement with the region has continuities with Soviet strategy, but there are marked shifts in its underlying rationale. Under Putin, there has been a concerted attempt to form salutary economic and security relationships with regional autocracies, predicated on transactional realpolitik. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Literary culture after 1945 took shape in a context where a handful of colonial empires were replaced by (at present count) nearly two hundred sovereign nation-states whose domestic politics, foreign policy, and cultural life were profoundly shaped by their relationship to the Cold War superpowers. One of the striking features of the historiography of this post-1945 world is that its two most salient themes—the Cold War, and decolonization—have so often been treated in isolation from each other. Postcolonialism and Cold War studies have, as Monica Popescu tells us, followed "separate, largely non-intersecting paths" (6). Yet even a superficial summary of the key geopolitical developments of the postwar period suggests that the Cold War and decolonization are not just interconnected, but mutually determining. When you take into account the decolonizing world, in some places afflicted by devastating proxy wars in this period, it must be said (it has often been said) that the Cold War was cruelly misnamed. This dual history has shaped our political language. A term like the West , as it is used in academic debates as well as in political, journalistic, and policymaking fields, developed its particular set of associations by contrast with the communist Eastern bloc on the one hand and with the (post)colonial global south on the other. Yet these two versions of the non-Western don't always line up: although anticolonial movements often sought to align themselves with the international communist movement, many proudly independent postcolonial nation-states were explicitly anti-communist (like the neoliberal regimes in Singapore and South Korea). Other postcolonies grappled with the Soviet Union or the People's Republic of China as a colonial power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This research sheds light on the beginning of official relations between the United States of America and Sri Lanka after its independence in 1948. These relations were characterized by friendliness and convergence between the two countries. Sri Lanka held strategic importance for the United States, and what distinguished this period was the American administration's desire to provide assistance to the Sri Lankan government as part of the containment policy and the Fourth Point Program it adopted during the Cold War, out of fear of Sri Lanka aligning with the Soviet Union. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

THE PRESENT PAPER REPRESENTS A COMPARISON BETWEEN THE POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONAL SETTINGS OF THE UNITED STATES AND SOVIET UNION IN THE MOMENT OF THE END OF THE COLD WAR, FROM THE THEORETICAL LENSES PROVIDED BY THE NEW INSTITUTIONAL ECONOMICS MODEL AS DEVISED BY DARON ACEMOGLU AND JAMES A. ROBINSON. THIS PAPER TRIES TO ANSWER THE QUESTION OF WHY THE UNITED STATES PRESERVED THE SUPERPOWER STATUS AND THE SOVIET UNION DID NOT. THIS PAPER ARGUES THAT THE UNITED STATES HAD BETTER POLITICAL AND ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS THAN THE SOVIET UNION. THEREFORE, THE SUPERIOR CHARACTER OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTIONS MADE THE DIFFERENCE AT THE END OF THE COLD WAR, THE UNITED STATES BEING ABLE TO PRESERVE ITS SUPERPOWER STATUS, WHILE THE SOVIET UNION COLLAPSED AND DISAPPEARED AS A STATE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

India is rapidly building up its space-based Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) capabilities. Although Indian military assets in space are in contention with the Chinese space program, they also make Pakistan apprehensive about the future of its nuclear deterrence. Pakistan acquired nuclear weapons to deter its much larger and stronger arch-nemesis, India, from violating its territorial integrity. Pakistan's nuclear deterrence and strategy are aligned with the Perfect Deterrence Theory, a diversion from the Classical Deterrence Theory used to understand the deterrence relationship between the USA and USSR during the Cold War. The study addresses the impact of India's space-based ISR capabilities on Pakistan's nuclear deterrence and posture. The growth of the Indian military space program, along with its great interest and investment in supersonic cruise missiles and ballistic missile defence program, indicates that India is building up its First Strike potential against Pakistan's strategic assets and installations. The developments will tremendously impact deterrence stability in South Asia as they will increase the likelihood of a nuclear escalation in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article details the production of the first American-Soviet television collaboration The Unknown War. The 1978 documentary series chronicled the Eastern Front of World War II, an area of the war few Americans were familiar with. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s American film and television portrayals of the war excised or minimized the Soviet Union's role due to the Cold War rivalry leading to a knowledge gap. The success of the documentary series The World at War spurred the interest of American independent producer Air Time International for a similar series on the Soviet side of the war. For Americans it was capitalizing on a revival of interest in the war while remedying the public's lack of knowledge on the Eastern. For the Soviet authorities it was a means of furthering relations eased by Détente and bolstering their 'Cult of the Great Patriotic War'. The series' creation showcases the difficulties and compromises made to craft a product that suited both sides' needs. The Soviet invasion of Afghanistan led to the series never being rebroadcast in the United States and largely forgotten. It serves as an example of the difficulties of such 'cross-curtain' collaborations and the Cold War's influence on the interpretation of World War II. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Does today's US–China relationship resemble the bygone rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union? In this article, we suggest that there are some instructive similarities between US–China and US–Soviet relations, but the Cold War analogy works best when the contemporary United States is cast in the role of the historical Soviet Union. Specifically, the United States (1991–present) has in common with the Soviet Union (1945–91) the fact that it occupies a position of near dominance on the Eurasian continent during a prolonged era of relative peace. It was Soviet hegemony in Eastern Europe that gave the bipolar international system of the Cold War era its defining characteristic—that is, a geographic distribution of power assets in Eurasia that the United States and its allies mobilized to resist and overturn. Now, it is US primacy in Eurasia that serves to define the basic contours of the present (if ailing) unipolar international system: a geopolitical configuration that denies any power other than the United States the opportunity to carve out an effective sphere of influence. In short, the legacy forward deployment of US forces shapes the context within which Sino-American relations are unfolding just as the legacy occupation of Eastern Europe by the Soviet Union structured superpower relations during the Cold War. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As Cuban-Soviet relations strengthened throughout the 1960s, Havana sent a significant number of becarios (scholarship holders) to the USSR. This was intended to improve Cuba's technical advancement, but it was also part of a broader attempt to build, through education, what Ernesto 'Che' Guevara coined as 'Cuban New Man'. To ensure the students' adherence to socialism and avoid dissatisfaction with the revolution, Cuban leaders asked the students to organise themselves in colectivos, which assembled all students enrolled in the same Soviet institution. Although these organisations were constantly monitored by a state officials, many Cubans eagerly assumed a leading position within colectivos, guaranteeing the observance of strict discipline and contributing to strengthening the bond between the students and the revolution, ultimately reinforcing Cuban socialism's New Man. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: US relations with the Soviet Union during the Cold War and with the Russian Federation thereafter have fluctuated from open hostility to competition. However, during and after the Cold War, Track-Two diplomacy, as an organized and institutionalized mechanism, have complemented the official diplomacy between the two countries. During the cold war, the high level of mistrust and hostility between the two superpowers, which sometimes led to the blockage of official relations, forced both sides to use Track-Two diplomacy. But despite ending of systemic competition and changing in the U.S. - Russian relations during the post-collapse era, Track-Two diplomacy continued with the characteristics of the previous era. Research Question: Considering what has been said, the question is how did intra-organizational dynamics lead to the pursuit of Track-Two diplomacy in realizing US and Russian interests during and after the Cold War? Research Hypothesis: The hypothesis of the research is that according to the historical path taken during the Cold War, the need to provide the strategic and sustainable interests of each country, the use of institutions with close ties with the government and interactions formed among the participants in informal processes, have caused the continuation of Track-Two diplomacy in U.S. - Russian relations in post-collapse era. Methodology and Theoretical Framework: To test the above hypothesis, the theory of "historical institutionalism" has been used. The emphasis of this paper is on the "equation" which is one of the main elements of the theory of historical institutionalism. In this direction and examining the same factors that had the same result in two different periods, the historical-comparative method is based on the comparison of the two periods of the Cold War and after the Cold War. The method of collecting information in this research is qualitative and based on documentary method. Results and Discussion: Studying the process of Track-Two diplomacy between the United States and the Soviet Union and its future developments in the post collapse period indicates the necessity of using informal relations to realize foreign policy goals and strategic interests that could not be pursued through official channels. Due to a wall of mistrust between the two countries, Washington and Moscow have faced numerous challenges to reach any kind of agreement. The existence of a growing gap and mistrust at official levels has made it necessary to use government institutions or institutions trusted by governments to implement controlled informal diplomacy in such a way that even the use of Track-Two diplomacy, the experienced people of the two countries resumed the processes with institutionalization in the post-Soviet era. All considered cases were examined in the field of equation, pursuit of benefits resulting from sustainable requirements, dimensions of coalition building interactions and the level of communication between the institutions involved with the center of power. During the Cold War era, there were several strategic interests: improving domestic capabilities, ensuring global strategic stability, and the need for direct communication with the opposing country's society. The adopted strategy was to use institutions or formal institutions with close ties to the government, which led to coalition-building interactions. In the post-collapse period, coalition-building interactions continued but the strategic interests were reduced to geopolitical - regional levels and maintaining the relative level of relations. These goals are generally pursued by non-governmental organizations. Among the three common causal factors in the equation of the two periods of the time, during the Cold War, the ability of Track-Two diplomacy to realize strategic interests is the most important factor. While in the post-collapse era, coalition building interaction is an influential factor. The comparison of the two research periods shows many similarities and differences. The similarities are: the use of the institutional model in Track-Two diplomacy processes, having a high level of support from the governments and the existence of coalition-building interactions in the realization of strategic interests. The most important similarity is the realization of strategic interests which is supported by the highest levels of governance in both periods. This support has been extended to different levels of governance in the post-collapse era. The development of this support is the result of coalition-building interactions formed in the processes of Track-Two diplomacy. The existence of interactions and high-level support in both periods indicates the correspondence of the Track-Two diplomacy in the post Cold War era with its historical path in the Cold War period. Differences can be seen in several fields. As mentioned above, strategic interests are reduced both quantitatively and qualitatively. Participating institutions are increased quantitatively and changed procedurally and substantively. They are changed from 9 governmental institutions to 21 non-governmental institutions. Criticism and opposition to the processes are reduced from the military and security level during the Cold War to the expert level during the post-collapse era. The achievements of Track-Two diplomacy are also decreased in terms of effectiveness. During the Cold War, Track-Two diplomacy processes influenced strategic plans. But in the post-collapse era, they are just a tool for adjusting and readjusting relationships. Conclusion: The findings show that the continuity of the institutional model is common in both periods but the change in the level of interests and the entry of institutions far from the power centers have reduced the impact of these processes on official paths in the next period. On the other hand, the number of involved pathways and institutions in Track-Two diplomacy processes has significantly increased. Finally, in a general summary of the comparison, it can be said that during the Cold War, the track diplomacy between the United States and the Soviet Union was strengthened and effective. However, after the Cold War, US-Russia Track-Two diplomacy was developed but it did not have much impact. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is Part II of a survey of Russia's position as one of the great powers and how it has evolved from 1815 to the present day. Part 1 ended on the eve of the Great Patriotic War (1941‒1945), and Part II begins where Part 1 left off, with some data on the Great Patriotic War and its influence on the USSR's position as a great power. It deals with post-war reconstruction and then considers the Cold War and post-Soviet Russia (1992‒2022). Attention is paid to Soviet economic policies, the reasons for the long-run decline in Soviet economic growth, and the state collapse of 1991. Explanatory theories used include List's economic recommendations for medium-developed countries, Wintrobe's political economy of dictatorship, and Tilly's analysis of the war–state relationship. It is concluded that a relatively poor country can become a great power and maintain that position for long periods if it has institutions that enable it to squeeze its population for military purposes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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In the 1950s, the Soviet Union expanded the range of its fisheries operations into international water traditionally fished by American vessels. In the USA, government officials and fisheries experts alike expressed concerns that the Soviets were overfishing Atlantic stocks, or even potentially engaging in off-shore espionage. Despite these fears, members of the US fisheries management community reached out and engaged with their Soviet counterparts directly. This initial communication led to a series of collaborations between US and Soviet scientific agencies aimed at developing a deeper understanding of marine ecosystems and improving the sustainability of international fisheries. The joint US–USSR research efforts beginning in the 1960s laid the foundation for continued cooperative studies through the 1980s and into the post-Soviet era. This paper uses historical records from the US National Archives and data products currently available on the web to examine the legacy of this Cold War cooperative research program. These materials demonstrate how American and Soviet scientists collaborated to generate and describe data on fisheries. It also considers how they negotiated recordkeeping and data management activities across radically different governmental structures, while also navigating the transition to digital recordkeeping and data exchange. This case offers perspective on the preservation of at-risk ecological records and the continued value of these data in our contemporary world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The plans of world cities outside the USSR that were produced by the Soviet military during the Cold War each include a List of Important Objects. These are items of significant strategic economic, administrative or military importance. This paper examines these object lists from Soviet military plans of British cities and discusses their contents. It concludes that there is considerable variation in their comprehensiveness and some inconsistency in the criteria used to select objects for inclusion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After breaking away from 'Stalin's isolationism', Moscow saw the 1959 Cuban Revolution as an opportunity to expand its influence and granted Cubans numerous scholarships for postgraduate and technical training in the USSR. Facing international hostility, preparing new specialists was crucial to Cuba's development. However, for many uneducated Cuban students, in addition to serious external obstacles (weather, language, depression), studying in the USSR was a highly politicised experience. They formed colectivos and were called on to induce a 'revolutionary morality' through incentives and sanctions; they also received ongoing political orientation from the embassy, shaping a well-entrenched 'culture of militancy'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]