East West Tensions In The Third World

Analyses superpower competition in the Third World, and contains assessments of the policy options. Demonstrates that competition in the Third World between the U.S. and the Soviet Union has many dimensions: military, political, ideological and economic. Illustrates that the policies of the Soviet Union and U.S. toward the Third World have gone through a considerable evolution during the four decades since the end of the Second World War.

This book is a comprehensive study of postwar European neutrality in the context of East-West relations. Hakovirta uses comparative case studies to explore such topics as the general features of neutral foreign policies, how the main neutrals--Austria, Finland, Ireland, Sweden, Switzerland--have fared in the face of East-West confrontations, the role of neutral states as third parties in the control and resolution of East-West conflicts, and the overall viability of neutrality as an option in European foreign policy.

This book aims to bring together American and West German scholars in order to analyze U.S., German, and Soviet elite perceptions of East-West conflict. It attempts to assess the policy implications and political options for the West.

In the last quarter century the Soviet Union and the United States have repeatedly come into conflict in various parts of the third world. During this period the most backward third world countries have sometimes proved susceptible to radical revolution, but the countries well on the way to industrialization have moved away from left-wing economic and political policies. In the longer perspective the West has been winning the struggle for the third world. The changes in those countries have been the subject of intense published debate in the Soviet Union—debate on Marxist concepts of the stages of history, on theories of economic development and revolutionary strategy, and on foreign policy. Jerry F. Hough explores the breakup of the orthodox Stalinist position on these issues and the evolution of free-swinging discussion about them. He suggests that, paradoxically, many of the old Stalinist ideas retain their strongest hold in the United States, which has not fully recognized its victory in the third world and the importance of the West's great economic power. The United States too often assumes that radical regimes will inevitably follow the Soviet path of development and that the nature of a regime determines the nature of its foreign policy. Because of these misperceptions, Hough argues the United States misses many opportunities in the third world. It emphasizes military power, even to the extent of undermining its crucial economic power, and it fails to offer the face-saving gestures that would permit Soviet retreats. Hough presents a prescription for an American policy better suited to the new realities in the third world and to the changing Soviet attitude toward them.

Much has already been written about the effects of the changes of the Cold War on conflict. The ongoing disengagement of East and West from bipolar Cold-War politics has resulted in an unstable international political situation which is characterized by regional conflicts. Most analyses now concentrate on the consequences for Europe and the former communist Central and East European states. This book, however, explores the effects for the Third World. The contributors provide major theoretical analyses of the causes of conflict in developing countries. Four main factors are distinguished: the processes of state-formation and nation-building; the rise or return of ethnicity and nationalism; socio-economic factors; and the armaments-conflict nexus. The volume also provides in-depth regional analyses, as well as policy perspectives on the issue of conflict and development.