This report examines the ways in which Soviet control of Eastern Europe has both contributed to and detracted from the Soviet Union's pursuit of foreign policy goals in Western Europe. In successive sections, it (1) reviews the highlights of past USSR-East European-West European interactions and outlines general characteristics of the triangular relationship; (2) examines the impact of the Polish crisis; and (3) traces the East European foreign policy activity related to NATO's 1983 decision to deploy intermediate-range nuclear forces and analyzes the emergence of a group of East European states--East Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania--whose policies differed from those of the Soviets. The author suggests that, while Eastern Europe serves as a constraint on Soviet relations with Western Europe, Western Europe also acts as a constraint on Soviet policy toward Eastern Europe. (Author).

A comprehensive look at both the diversity of Eastern Europe and the multiplicity of Soviet concerns in the region.

This report analyzes the objectives, instruments, and achievements of Soviet policy toward Western Europe. It focuses on the mechanisms used by the Soviet Union to pursue its objectives in Europe, including diplomacy, military power, arms control, the West European Communist parties, ties with the non-Communist left, propaganda, and trade. The author concludes that the Soviet Union has achieved mixed results in its policy toward Western Europe. While it has succeeded in helping to consolidate postwar gains, Soviet policy has not yet made a dramatic breakthrough toward its stated objective of fostering a system of 'collective security' in Europe. Nevertheless, there is little evidence to suggest that failure to achieve these maximal goals has led the Soviets to rethink their objectives of lower their expectations. (Author).

This volume consists of a collection of essays written by Professor Byrnes between 1956 and 1988. The papers vary considerably in focus and include policy issues that were significant at the time, with the Cold War analyses around the post-war containment theory. In addition, there is a consistent viewpoint and argument in Byrnes reflections on East-West relations. A central theme throughout the collection is the essential correctness of U.S. foreign policy toward the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe between 1946 and 1988.

American Policy Toward Communist Eastern Europe was first published in 1965. Minnesota Archive Editions uses digital technology to make long-unavailable books once again accessible, and are published unaltered from the original University of Minnesota Press editions. Perhaps no aspect of American foreign relations has been in greater need of clarification and understanding than our policy toward the Communist nations of Eastern Europe, both as to what has happened in the past and what is possible for the future. In this book a former State Department Official, now on the staff of the Council on Foreign Relations, provides objective information which will help students, professors, members of adult study groups, and others concerned with American foreign policy to understand and discuss this important subject. Mr. Campbell reminds us that the cold war began in Eastern Europe in the aftermath of the second World War. Since that time, the question of what to do about Eastern Europe has been in the forefront of American foreign policy. For some years, he contends, we have been uncertain of our objectives and ambivalent in our policies. Meanwhile, changes since the death of Stalin have created new situations both for the Soviet Union and for the West.In analyzing what has happened, the author emphasizes the forces which have shaken the unity of the Soviet bloc to create new perspectives and possibilities. He discusses the effects of the Soviet- Chinese split, the relationship of the German question to that of Eastern Europe, and the phenomenon of national Communism as it has appeared in different forms in Yugoslavia, Poland, Rumania, and elsewhere. After presenting the historical background, the author discusses American aims and current policies and outlines the choices he sees ahead. He does not plead for any one of the alternative lines of action, presenting them, rather, as a basis for reasoned consideration and debate.

The year 1989 marked a turning point in world history, a watershed year of unprecedented drama and political significance. No matter how one looks at those events–as the fall of communism, the democratization of Eastern Europe, or the end of the cold war–it is important to understand how the world travelled the distance of time, space, and ideology to arrive at the Berlin Wall and tear it down. David Mason provides that understanding in a concise synthesis of history, politics, economics, sociology, literature, philosophy, and popular, as well as traditional, culture. He shows how all these elements combined to yield the year that effectively closed the twentieth century–and promised to launch the new century on a hopeful note. Starting with Poland's elections in June 1989, the countries of then-communist Eastern Europe one by one revolutionized their governments and their polities; Hungary opened its borders to the West, East Germany rushed through, Czechoslovakia elected Vaclav Havel president, Bulgaria changed both party and leadership, and Romania executed Ceausescu. Although Gorbachev enabled many of these changes, he did not cause them. The illumination of the complex symbiosis between dynamics in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union is one of the greatest contributions this book makes. With undercurrents emphasizing the power of ideas, the spirit of youth, and the multifaceted force of culture and ethnicity, Mason takes the reader far beyond the events of change and into their impetus and outcomes. He applies theories of social movements, democratization, and economic transition with an even hand, showing the interaction of their effects not only regionally but worldwide. The concluding chapter puts the revolutions in Eastern Europe into international perspective and highlights their impact on East-West relations, security alliances, and economic integration. Mason discusses the European Community, the United States and the Soviet Union, and the Third World in relation to the new East-Central European configuration. Using delightful and provocative cartoons from Eastern European and Soviet presses, interesting photos, valuable tables of data, and illuminating figures, Mason emphasizes important points about the role of nationalism, ethnicity, public opinion, and harsh economic reality in the revolutionary process.

This book, first published in 1984, carefully examine the political debate surrounding nuclear weapons and superpower polices in Cold War Western Europe. It seeks to analyse a distinctly European view in Soviet policy, as opposed to a superpower view. It examines Soviet domestic and foreign policy, economic and military practice, with the aim of understanding and countering the Soviet threat to Western Europe.

This book is a study on the Soviet foreign policy when the task of renovating the country was placed on the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's (CPSU) political agenda. It discusses Gorbachev's new approach to foreign policy and the political change that reshaped Soviet and European history.

Monograph comprising conference papers on the political aspects of modernization and social change in Eastern Europe - covers international relations and regional level politics, the foreign policy role of USSR in the region, etc. References and statistical tables. Conference held in new york 1973 mar 23 and 24.