Changing Course : Ideas, Politics, and the Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan

Sarah E. Mendelson

ISBN 10: 0691602808 / ISBN 13: 9780691602806

Editore: Princeton University Press, 2014

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nach der Bestellung gedruckt Neuware - Printed after ordering - 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.

Codice articolo 9780691602806

Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Changing Course : Ideas, Politics, and the Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan
• Editore: Princeton University Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 2014
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0691602808
• ISBN 13: 9780691602806
• Rilegatura: Taschenbuch
• Condizione: Neu
• Dimensioni: 234 L x 156 A x 9 P (millimetri) 234 millimetri di larghezza per 156 millimetri di altezza per 9 millimetri di profondità
• Peso: 251 grammi

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Riassunto

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 paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is t

Contenuti

	Acknowledgments
	Preface: Encounters with a Declining Power
	Abbreviations
Ch. 1	Introduction: How the New Thinkers Beat the Old Thinkers	3
Ch. 2	Explaining Change in Soviet Foreign Policy: Three Competing Arguments	18
Ch. 3	Escalation in Afghanistan, 1979-1980: A Case of Old Thinking	39
Ch. 4	The Groundwork for Change, 1982-1984: Old Thinkers Rule but New Thinkers Are Mobilized	65
Ch. 5	Changing the Political Agenda, 1985-1989: New Thinkers Gain Control of Political Resources	92
Ch. 6	Conclusion: The Importance of Ideas and Politics in Explaining Change	124
	Index	133