After The Soviet Union Implication For Us Policy

Russia, once seen as America's greatest adversary, is now viewed by the United States as a potential partner. This book traces the evolution of American foreign policy toward the Soviet Union, and later Russia, during the tumultuous and uncertain period following the end of the cold war. It examines how American policymakers--particularly in the executive branch--coped with the opportunities and challenges presented by the new Russia. Drawing on extensive interviews with senior U.S. and Russian officials, the authors explain George H. W. Bush's response to the dramatic coup of August 1991 and the Soviet breakup several months later, examine Bill Clinton's efforts to assist Russia's transformation and integration, and analyze George W. Bush's policy toward Russia as September 11 and the war in Iraq transformed international politics. Throughout, the book focuses on the benefits and perils of America's efforts to promote democracy and markets in Russia as well as reorient Russia from security threat to security ally. Understanding how three U.S. administrations dealt with these critical policy questions is vital in assessing not only America's Russia policy, but also efforts that might help to transform and integrate other former adversaries in the future.

Mission Failure argues that, in the past 25 years, the U.S. military has turned to missions that are largely humanitarian and socio-political - and that this ideologically-driven foreign policy generally leads to failure.

This book, first published in 1992, examines the end of the Cold War and the implications for the history and future of the world order.

In this book, Allen Lynch challenges the common wisdom that the revolutionary events in Eastern Europe in 1989 and in the Soviet Union in 1991 marked the end of the cold war. Instead, he argues that the cold war was actually resolved by the early 1970s, as evidenced by the tacit acceptance of a divided Germany and Europe. More recent events thus overthrew not the cold war but the post-cold war order in East-West and U.S.-Soviet relations. And–often to their surprise and consternation–leaders of the governments involved must now face formidable new forces created by German unity and nationalism in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, which were contained efficiently–if at times brutally–by the post-cold war order. In its three sections, the book reviews historical, contemporary, and future-oriented themes, respectively. Lynch begins by exploring the deeper logic of the cold war and how it was resolved by the 1970s. He then presents an overview of recent Soviet domestic and foreign policy processes as they affect East-West relations. The concluding section considers the future, with special emphasis on the implications of a disintegrating USSR for U.S. foreign policy.

‘The United States, the Soviet Union and the Geopolitical Implications of the Origins of the Cold War, 1945–1949’ describes how the United States and the Soviet Union deployed their hard and soft power resources to create the basis for the institutionalization of the international order in the aftermath of World War Two. The book argues that the origins of the Cold War should not be seen from the perspective of a magnified spectrum of conflict but should be regarded as a process by which the superpowers attempted to forge a normative framework capable of sustaining their geopolitical needs and interests in the post-war scenario. ‘The United States, the Soviet Union and the Geopolitical Implications of the Origins of the Cold War, 1945–1949’ examines how the use of ideology and the instrument of political intervention in the spheres of influence managed by the superpowers were conducive to the establishment of a stable international order. It postulates that the element of conflict present in the early period of the Cold War served to demarcate the scope of manoeuvring available to each of the superpowers and studies the notion that the United States and the Soviet Union were primarily interested in establishing the conditions for the accomplishment of their vital geostrategic interests. This required the implementation of social norms imposed in the respective spheres of influence, a factor that provided certainty to the spectrum of interstate relations after the period of turmoil that culminated with the onset of World War Two.

Essay from the year 2005 in the subject Politics - International Politics - Region: USA, grade: 1,7, Central European University Budapest, 19 entries in the bibliography, language: English, abstract: The Cold War was the defining conflict in the international system for more than four decades. When the Soviet Union eventually broke up in December 1991, the Cold War had come to an end. This, however, was not simply the result of the disappearance of the Soviet Union. Substantial improvements in U.S.-Soviet relations had been made since 1985. While the initiative to end the Cold War certainly lay more with Gorbachev and the Soviet side, the assessment of the Reagan Administration's contribution to the end of the Cold War has tended to polarize scholars. Richard Pipes, for instance, claims that "U.S. policies played an important role in compelling reforms and ... [these] reforms once launched, unraveled the system." In contrast, Raymond Garthoff assesses the American role as "necessary but not primary." Against the triumphalist argument proposed by Pipes, he argues that not the West's geopolitical containment, military deterrence and even less the Reagan military build up, but the emergence of a new reform-minded Soviet leadership was the crucial causal condition. Lebow and Stein agree with Garthoff in pointing out that the end of the Cold War began when Gorbachev launched his reforms. But unlike Garthoff, they evaluate the policies of the Reagan Administration towards the Soviet Union not as less relevant, but as rather counterproductive, arguing that "[i]f American policy did have an impact when Soviet leaders were committed to reform, then the strategy of deterrence likely prolonged the Cold War." While all these arguments draw attention to important aspects, they seem to be slightly too much colored with U.S. partisan attitudes and, for that reason, do not capture the whole picture of the impact of U.S. policy on Soviet conduct and the end of the Cold War. The pu

This reader brings together both Soviet and US contributions to investigate the range of issues that these two countries must face as the Cold War ends. Within the context of a debate format, readings illustrate areas of co-operation and conflict between the US and the USSR.