UID:
edocfu_9959240915902883
Format:
1 online resource (158 p.)
Edition:
Course Book
ISBN:
0-691-63225-1
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0-691-60280-8
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1-4008-6482-8
Series Statement:
Princeton Studies in International History and Politics ; 145
Content:
Soviet foreign policy changed dramatically in the 1980s. The shift, bitterly resisted by the country's foreign policy traditionalists, ultimately contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. In Changing Course, Sarah Mendelson demonstrates that interpretations that stress the impact of the international system, and particularly of U.S. foreign policy, or that focus on the role of ideas or politics alone, fail to explain the contingent process of change. Mendelson tells a story of internal battles where "misfit" ideas--ones that severely challenged the status quo--were turned into policies. She draws on firsthand interviews with those who ran Soviet foreign policy and the war in Afghanistan and on recently declassified material from Soviet archives to show that both ideas and political strategies were needed to make reform happen.Focusing on the Soviet decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, Mendelson details the strategies used by the Gorbachev coalition to shift the internal balance of power in favor of constituencies pushing new ideas--mutual security, for example--while undermining the power of old constituencies resistant to change. The interactive dynamic between ideas and politics that she identifies in the case of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan is fundamental to understanding other shifts in Soviet foreign policy and the end of the Cold War. Her exclusive interviews with the foreign policy elite also offer a unique glimpse of the inner workings of the former Soviet power structure.Originally published in 1998.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.
Note:
Description based upon print version of record.
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Frontmatter --
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Contents --
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Acknowledgments --
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Preface --
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Abbreviations --
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Chapter One. Introduction: How the New Thinkers Beat the Old Thinkers --
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Chapter Two. Explaining Change in Soviet Foreign Policy: Three Competing Arguments --
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Chapter Three. Escalation in Afghanistan, 1979-1980: A Case of Old Thinking --
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Chapter Four. The Groundwork for Change, 1982-1984: Old Thinkers Rule but New Thinkers Are Mobilized --
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Chapter Five. Changing the Political Agenda, 1985-1989: New Thinkers Gain Control of Political Resources --
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Chapter Six. Conclusion: The Importance of Ideas and Pohtics in Explaining Change --
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Index --
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About the Author
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Issued also in print.
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English
Additional Edition:
ISBN 0-691-01677-1
Additional Edition:
ISBN 1-306-98385-1
Language:
English
DOI:
10.1515/9781400864829
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