The Balance of Power in The World in March 1939

2021 ◽  
pp. 95-118
Author(s):  
Martin Wight
Keyword(s):  
Decision Making ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
Balance Of Power ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Western Democracy ◽  
The World ◽  
Perceived Security ◽  
Triangular Relationship

This essay surveys the political fluidity and antagonism in the triangular relationship among the main power groupings in March 1939—the Soviet Union, the Axis Powers (Germany, Italy, and Japan), and the Western Powers (Britain and France above all). Rather than focusing on their military capabilities and combat options, the essay concentrates on the ideas expressed in each camp—in the Western Powers, interest in the rule of law and constitutionalism; in the Axis Powers, ambitions for territorial acquisitions and increased might; and in the Soviet Union, the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary vision. In conjunction with this three-cornered dialogue, the essay examines factors in addition to ideas that influenced decision-making, including greed, coercion, resentments, power pressures, national egoisms, dependence on allies, and perceived security imperatives. Three combinations were hypothetically possible: a Nazi–Soviet alliance, a Soviet–Western alliance, or a Nazi–Western alliance. In August 1939, Nazi Germany offered the Soviet Union a non-aggression pact that enabled Moscow to seize territories in Eastern Europe and to limit its immediate involvement in combat. Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 brought about a Soviet–Western alliance determined to defeat the Axis, despite the chasm between Soviet totalitarianism and Western democracy.

CRIMEA AND THE BLACK SEA REGION IN THE POLITICAL PICTURE OF THE WORLD OF THE NATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR STRATEGIC STUDIES OF UKRAINE EXPERTS (BASED ON ANALYTICAL REPORTS TO THE PRESIDENT’S MESSAGES TO THE VERKHOVNA RADA)

2020 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 79-84
Author(s):  
OLEG V. Donetsk National University ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Black Sea ◽  
Parallel Structure ◽  
Regional Security ◽  
The Black Sea ◽  
The Political ◽  
Black Sea Region ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Strategic Studies

Basing on a constructivist approach to international relations and foreign policy, the author has defined the conceptual content of the script, in which the experts of the Ukrainian National Institute for Strategic Studies imagine Crimea and the Black Sea region. The study was carried out on the basis of the materials of the Institute's analytical reports to the messages of the President to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in 2014-2018. It was found that the ideas about Crimea contained in them are extremely mythologized: in the political picture of the world of the Institute's experts, the peninsula is considered as a “Russian bridgehead”, a source of “military threat" and an "occupied territory". Ukrainian experts are convinced that the motives of Russia's foreign and defense policy in the Black Sea direction are allegedly due to its desire for "expansion", "imperial policy" and the desire to "restore the Soviet Union." They perceive the reunification of Crimea with Russia as an event that led to a cardinal transformation of the geopolitical space of the Black Sea region that contradicts Ukrainian national interests. At the same time, on rational grounds, the institute is actively searching for conceptual approaches to organizing a new regional security system and creating a long-term, broad and durable alliance of anti-Russian forces, which could act as a NATO parallel structure in the Black Sea region in the future. Moreover, Ukrainian experts do not have any own geopolitical project or idea on this. They are considering several options for regional coalitions at once, paying special attention to the Polish concept of "Intermarium", which consists in creating a block of Baltic-Black Sea states.

Dissent and Consent under State Socialism

1972 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 36-44
Author(s):  
David Lane
Keyword(s):  
Social Change ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
International Relations ◽  
Political Culture ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Soviet Russia ◽  
Diachronic Development ◽  
State Socialist

Professor Bauman's article is certainly a welcome contribution to the analysis of state socialist societies. He succeeds in breaking away from the myopic Kremlinological study of individuals and he also conducts his argument on a comparative sociological plane transcending the Sovietologist's ideographic viewpoint. However, he may be criticised at many points: it is very doubtful whether the state under capitalism is as ‘autonomous’ an institution as Bauman suggests; distinctions should be made between the socialist states of Eastern Europe, for what may be true of Poland and Rumania may not be true of the Soviet Union; international relations, particularly those between the U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe and between East and West, have important effects on the political culture and significantly restrict the possibilities for social change; the diachronic development of the societies under consideration needs to be given more prominence, for what may have been the case in Soviet Russia in 1920 or in Poland in 1948 may not be so for either society in 1971. Here, I shall have to leave on one side such general criticisms to concentrate on a number of specific points in Bauman's argument relating to stratification in Eastern Europe which seem to me to be debatable.

scholarly journals Globalisasi dan Demokrasi di Rusia: Suatu Tantangan dan Peluang

2017 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diah Ayu Permatasari
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Point Of View ◽  
Historical Event ◽  
The West ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Western Democracy ◽  
Strong Current ◽  
The World ◽  
Historical Pattern

AbstractGlobalisation has brought many changes in the world, and has huge implication towards the economy, politics, and socio-culture.  The break up of the Soviet Union in 1991 is one of the historical event cause by the globalisation and transformed to what it is Russia today.  Russia tried to adapt towards globalisation by following it national historical pattern, and not following the pattern that has been used by the Western countries.  For the West, transition democracy process in Russia is incomplete, but as for the Russian point of view, it is a democracy with distinction pattern or “the Russian way” that is different to what is practiced by the West.  For that reason, this essay tried to look at the Russian political and economic policy to handle the strong current of globalisation and democracy.Keywords: Rusia, Globalisation, Democracy and Cold War AbstrakGlobalisasi telah membawa perubahan bagi dunia, yang berimplikasi pada tatanan ekonomi, politik, social dan budaya. Salah satu dampak dari globalisasi adalah pecahnya Uni Soviet pada tahun 1991 yang kemudian bertransformasi menjadi Rusia. Rusia melakukan adaptasi terhadap globalisasi, yaitu dengan mengikuti pola historis nasionalnya, dan tidak mengikuti pola yang telah dilakukan oleh dunia Barat. Bagi Barat, proses transisi demokrasi Rusia merupakan incomplete transformation, sementara dari sudut pandang Rusia, proses tersebut bukan merupakan bentuk demokrasi yang belum lengkap, melainkan demokrasi dengan corak tersendiri yang tidak bias disamakan dengan western democracy. Oleh karena itu, tulisan ini berupaya melihat kebijakan ekonomi politik Rusia dalam menghadapi arus demokrasi dan globalisasi.Kata kunci: Rusia, globalisasi, demokrasi dan perang dingin

Efficiency vs. Equality and the Demise of Socialism

1992 ◽  
Vol 22 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-161 ◽  
Author(s):  
Russell Hardin
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Graduate Students ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
New York Times ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World

One of my fellow graduate students at MIT had access to the Pentagon Papers at a time when they were still classified, and he was writing a dissertation on aspects of the American involvement in Vietnam. One morning over breakfast he discovered that he had been preempted by the New York Times. Every scholar recently working on the Soviet Union, China, and Eastern Europe must understand that student’s sensation that morning. By now, they must face newspapers with a mixture of hope and foreboding. Events outrun the most radical predictions. Not only has the Wall crumbled, with pieces of it being sold as souvenirs, but Albania has established telephone connections to the world not long after westerners came to believe Albania had been the only nation in modem times to succeed in disappearing.

scholarly journals Autonomy and Ideology: Brezhnev, Ceauşescu and the World Communist Movement

2014 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 115-134 ◽  
Author(s):  
CEZAR STANCIU
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
The Political ◽  
International Meeting ◽  
Party Leadership ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Communist Movement ◽  
Nicolae Ceausescu

AbstractOne of Leonid Brezhnev's primary goals when he acceded to party leadership in the Soviet Union was to restore Moscow's control over the world communist movement, severely undermined by the Sino-Soviet dispute. Nicolae Ceauşescu of Romania was determined to prevent this, in order to consolidate his country's autonomy in the Communist bloc. The Sino-Soviet dispute offered the political and ideological framework for autonomy, as the Romanian Communists claimed their neutrality in the dispute. This article describes Ceauşescu's efforts to sabotage Brezhnev's attempts to have China condemned by an international meeting of Communist parties between 1967 and 1969. His basic ideological argument was that unity of world communism should have a polycentric meaning.

The Sixth World Congress of Sociology

1966 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-240
Author(s):  
Ansu K. Datta
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Eastern Europe ◽  
World Congress ◽  
International Sociological Association ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Communist Countries

This year the World Congress was attended by large delegations from Eastern Europe, and 88 from the Soviet Union alone. Some of these could speak English and French, and could thus exchange experiences and opinions outside the conference rooms. The new interest of Communist countries in the International Sociological Association and its activities was appropriately reflected in the election of a Polish sociologist as President of the next World Congress.

scholarly journals The political and diplomatic relations between Lithuania and Romania (1935-1940)

2010 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-33
Author(s):  
Dalia Bukelevičiūtė
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
World War I ◽  
The Political ◽  
Diplomatic Relations ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Set Up

The first contacts between Lithuanian and Romanian representatives started after the World War I when Lithuania was looking for the protection of her inhabitants who were still refugees in Russia. As Russia became entrenched with Bolshevism, the Lithuanian citizens were evacuated through Romanian territory from South Ukraine and Crimea. Lithuania and Czechoslovakia established diplomatic relations in December 1919 and eventually an attempt was made to set up ties also with Romania. As a member of the Little Entente and an ally of Poland, Romania drew the attention of the Lithuanian government. Romania recognized Lithuania de jure on August 21, 1924 and Dovas Zaunius was appointed the first Lithuanian envoy to Bucharest. Nevertheless, during the next decade no political or diplomatic contacts between Lithuania and Romania existed. With the growing influence of Germany, the Soviet Union and the Little Entente on the international arena, Edvardas Turauskas was appointed on August 27, 1935 as envoy to Romania residing in Prague and later in the year Romania accredited ConstantinValimarescu for the position of envoy to Lithuania residing in Riga. The dialogue between the two parties remained, however, occasional. When on July 21, 1940 Lithuania was occupied by Soviet Union, Turauskas visited the Romanian Legation in Bern and presented a note of protest in this respect. Romania did not acknowledge Lithuanian occupation and annexation.

The impact of the regional factor in the democratic transition A comparative study between the experiences of Spain 1975 and Iraq 2003

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luqman Raheem ◽  
Nasir Durid
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Union ◽  
Liberal Democracy ◽  
Political Development ◽  
The United States ◽  
The Political ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Regional Factor

The regional factor has always played an important role in the political developments of various countries and political experiences, as this factor constituted the role of the direct incubator for all the successful and failed experiences of political development throughout our time. The process of democratization is considered one of the most important political experiments of our time, which gained wide momentum after the Second World War. Especially after the peoples of the world realized the importance and preference of this system compared to the rest of the political systems. After the end of the Cold War, the world witnessed a remarkable trend towards liberal democracy, exhilarated by the euphoria of the victory of the Western camp led by the United States of America over its eastern historical opponent (led by the Soviet Union). Liberal democracy and its sovereignty over the world, rather they unleashed an unbridled optimism that says: ""The peoples and societies of the world are moving towards adopting the model of liberal democracy, because it is the model most responsive to the aspirations of human freedom and the release of his energies.

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