Abstract
The present chapter focuses on the competitive-cooperative relationship between the superpowers in Eastern Europe and is divided into four major sections. The first examines the nature of the interests of both the Soviet Union and the United States in Eastern Europe. The second part traces the evolution of the East European security regime. Special attention is given to the evidence of superpower ‘cooperative’ arrangements as they evolved over the course of the past forty years. The third part of the chapter delineates the specific nature of the European community system and the rules of behavior (or ‘operational code’) that emerged during that period. The discussion responds to the question: to what extent has ‘cooperation’ become an operative element in Soviet-American relations as they relate to Eastern Europe? The final section of the chapter outlines the reasons for the recent revolutionary changes in Eastern Europe and the prospects for the expansion and strengthening of superpower cooperation concerning Eastern Europe.
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Notes
See the classic treatment of the process in Hugh Seton-Watson, The East European Revolution (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1956), 3rd edn
Zbigniew Brzezinski, The Soviet Bloc: Unity and Conflict (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1967), rev. edn.
See Vojtech Mastny, Russia’s Road to the Cold War (New York: Columbia University Press, 1979).
Charles Gati, ‘From Cold War Origins to Détente: Introduction to the International Politics of Eastern Europe’, in Charles Gati (ed.), The International Politics of Eastern Europe (New York: Praeger, 1976), p. 6.
The following discussion of Soviet objectives draws on James F. Brown, ‘Soviet Interests and Policies in Eastern Europe’, in Richard D. Vine (ed.), Soviet-East European Relations as a Problem for the West (London/New York: Croom Helm, 1987), pp. 43–5
Sarah Meiklejohn Terry, ‘The Soviet Union and Eastern Europe: Implications of US Policy’, in Dan Caldwell (ed.), Soviet International Behavior and US Policy Options (Lexington, MA/Toronto: Lexington Books, 1985), pp. 11–26.
On the policy of differentiation see Charles Gati, Hungary and the Soviet Bloc (Durham: Duke University Press, 1986), pp. 219–20
Bennett Kovrig, The Myths of Liberation: East-Central Europe in US Diplomacy and Politics since 1941 (Baltimore/London: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 1973)
John Lewis Gaddis, Strategies of Containment: A Critical Appraisal of Postwar American National Security Policy (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1982), pp. 65–71.
Zbigniew Brzezinski and William E. Griffith, ‘Peaceful Engagement in Eastern Europe’, Foreign Affairs, vol. 39, no. 4 (1961), p. 642.
An excellent analytic treatment of the crisis appears in Hannes Adomeit, Soviet Risk-Taking and Crisis Behavior: A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis (London/Boston: George Allen & Unwin, 1982), pp. 67–182.
Cited in Bruno Kreisky, Die Herausforderung (Dusseldorf: Econ, 1963), p. 103.
See Kurt Steiner, ‘Negotiations for an Austrian State Treaty’, in Alexander L. George, Philip J. Farley, and Alexander Dallin (eds), US-Soviet Security Cooperation: Achievements, Failures, Lessons (New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988), pp. 106–22.
A. W. DePorte, Europe Between the Superpowers: The Enduring Balance (New Haven/London: Yale University Press, 1979), pp. 165–6.
Theodore C. Sorensen, Kennedy (New York: Harper & Row, 1965), pp. 593–4.
This discussion draws on Karen Dawisha, The Kremlin and the Prague Spring (Berkeley/London: University of California Press, 1984)
Galia Golan, Reform Rule in Czechoslovakia, 1968–1969 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1973)
H. Gordon Skilling, Czechoslovakia’s Interrupted Revolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1976).
This discussion draws from Roger E. Kanet ‘The Polish Crisis and Poland’s “Allies”: The Soviet and East European Response to Events in Poland’, in Jack Bielasiak and Maurice D. Simon (eds), Polish Politics: Edge of the Abyss (New York: Praeger, 1984), pp. 317–44
John L. Gaddis, ‘The Evolution of US Policy Goals Toward the USSR in the Postwar Era’, in Seweryn Bialer and Michael Mandelbaum (eds), Gorbachev’s Russia and American Foreign Policy (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1988), p. 327.
On the role of Eastern Europe in the Third World, see Roger E. Kanet, ‘Eastern Europe and the Third World: The Expanding Relationship’, in Michael J. Sodaro and Sharon L. Wolchik (eds), Foreign and Domestic Policy in Eastern Europe in the 1980s: Trends and Prospects (London: Macmillan; New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1983), pp. 234–59.
On the concept of’ spheres of influence’ see Roger E. Kanet, ‘Esferas de Influencia de la Política Exterior Soviética’, Foro Internacional, vol. 14, no. 2 (1973), pp. 220–34
This coincides with Alexander George conclusions in ‘Crisis Prevention Reexamined’, in Alexander L. George (ed.), Managing US-Soviet Rivalry: Problems of Crisis Prevention (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1979), p. 384.
For an argument in favor of linkage in policy toward the USSR written several years later see Helmut Sonnenfeldt, ‘Linkage: A Strategy for Tempering Soviet Antagonisms’, NATO Review, vol. XXVII, no. 1 (1979), pp. 3–5, 21–2.
For the discussion of these rules see Seweryn Bialer, ‘Lessons of History: Soviet-American Relations in the Postwar Era’, in Arnold L. Horelick (ed.), US-Soviet Relations: The Next Phase (Ithaca/London: Cornell University Press, 1986), p. 91
Alexander L. George, ‘US-Soviet Efforts to Cooperate in Crisis Management and Crisis Avoidance’, in George, Farley, and Dallin (eds), US-Soviet Security Cooperation, pp. 583–4.
This discussion draws from a number of sources. Especially important are Mikhail Gorbachev, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World (New York: Harper & Row, 1987)
Abel Aganbegyan, The Economic Challenge of Perestroika (Bloomington-Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1988)
Tat’iana I. Zaslavskaia, A Voice of Reform: Essays By Tat’iana I. Zaslavskaia (Armonk, NY/London: M. E. Sharpe, 1989)
A. Hewett, Reforming the Soviet Economy: Equality versus Efficiency (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1988)
Jerry F. Hough, Opening up the Soviet Economy (Washington, DC: The Brookings Institution, 1988).
For a perceptive analysis of recent Soviet-East European relations see Charles Gati, The Bloc That Failed: Soviet-East European Relations in Transition (Bloomington-Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 1990).
Kennan’s 1947 ‘Mr X’ article on containment is reprinted in Charles Gati (ed.), Caging the Bear: Containment and the Cold War (Indianapolis/New York: Bobbs-Merrill, 1974).
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© 1991 Roger E. Kanet and Edward A. Kolodziej
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Kanet, R.E. (1991). Superpower Cooperation in Eastern Europe. In: Kanet, R.E., Kolodziej, E.A. (eds) The Cold War as Cooperation. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11605-8_4
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