The Chilean Moment in the Global Cold War: International Reactions to Salvador Allende's Victory in the Presidential Election of 1970

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 26-55
Author(s):  
Sebastián Hurtado-Torres

This article discusses the reactions of governments and political leaders around the world to the victory of Salvador Allende in the Chilean presidential election of 1970—reactions that were shaped by a combination of ideological considerations, the diplomatic interests of particular states in the context of the Cold War, and an image of Chilean democratic exceptionalism purveyed by Chilean diplomats and largely assumed by a surprising number of people abroad. Reactions to Allende's victory in 1970 reflected the ideological divisions in Chilean politics as well as the tensions and anxieties of an international order that was then beginning to experience a series of significant changes as a result of the East-West détente. Paradoxically, Allende's ideological foreign policy, one of the main reasons for which his election was both dreaded and welcomed in different parts of the world, foretold some of the changes that would take place in the international system in the 1970s.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Rinke

This study examines the fundamental new direction in German theological peace ethics since the end of the East–West conflict. It guides the reader through the thought processes and discoveries of leading Catholic and Protestant peace ethicists and, in doing so, through the significant developments in theological peace ethics in Germany amid the tough new realities that have emerged since the end of the Cold War. In addition, the book discusses the normative premises for conduct conducive to peace which German theological peace ethics has devised in order to fulfil its responsibility to the world in the face of today’s new, violent conflicts.


Author(s):  
Jurjen A. Zeilstra

Chapter 7 traces Visser ’t Hooft’s activity as a (controversial) bridge builder during the period of the Cold War, on the unity of the church, and Eastern Orthodoxy. Despite the Cold War, which prevented Eastern Orthodox churches from joining the World Council, Visser ’t Hooft held firmly to the direction set by the World Council as a third way between East and West, utilising insights he laid out in earlier publications. At the same time the World Council had to deal with the question of churches recognising other churches as true. In this chapter we see how Visser ’t Hooft inspired people to apply ecumenicity across the East-West divide. The chapter also looks at criticism of Visser ’t Hooft’s approach.


2014 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 110-132 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christian Henrich-Franke

The transformation of the international system in the 1970s had remarkable consequences for East-West relations in the field of international radio communications. The two opposing blocs were compelled to join forces in an international system that was in a state of flux. Third World countries had started putting forward their demands for a “New International Information Order” and increasingly exerted pressure to achieve a reallocation of the spectrum for their own benefit. However, they were not able to reach their objectives at the World Administrative Radio Conference convened in 1979 by the International Telecommunication Union in order to reallocate the entire radio frequency spectrum. Expert groups from East and West cooperated closely on this issue, developing a coordinated strategy that enabled them to defend their shared interests.


Author(s):  
Simon Miles

This chapter covers Ronald Reagan's first meeting with Mikhail Gorbache in Geneva in November 1985, exploring the internal and external roots of the nascent new thinking in Soviet foreign-policy and its impact on East–West relations. It recounts how superpower relations over a five-year period became messy and contradictory as Moscow and Washington exchanged harsh words and engaged in more dialogue than is commonly thought. It also mentions how the process of ending the Cold War had begun as US policymakers regained confidence in their place in the world and their Soviet counterparts took drastic measures to deal with a deteriorating situation. The chapter refers to policymakers in Washington and Moscow who struggled with the dualities of the Cold War. It describes that the policymakers witnessed a strong and rising United States and a Soviet Union that was on a grim downward trajectory.


Author(s):  
Stephen G. Rabe

This book analyzes U.S. policies toward Latin America during a critical period of the Cold War. Except for the issue of Chile under Salvador Allende, historians have largely ignored inter-American relations during the presidencies of Richard M. Nixon and Gerald R. Ford. This book also offers a way of adding to and challenging the prevailing historiography on one of the most preeminent policymakers in the history of U.S. foreign relations. Scholarly studies on Henry Kissinger and his policies between 1969 and 1977 have tended to survey Kissinger's approach to the world, with an emphasis on initiatives toward the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China and the struggle to extricate the United States from the Vietnam conflict. This book offers something new—analyzing U.S. policies toward a distinct region of the world during Kissinger's career as national security adviser and secretary of state. The book further challenges the notion that Henry Kissinger dismissed relations with the southern neighbors. The energetic Kissinger devoted more time and effort to Latin America than any of his predecessors—or successors—who served as the national security adviser or secretary of state during the Cold War era. He waged war against Salvador Allende and successfully destabilized a government in Bolivia. He resolved nettlesome issues with Mexico, Peru, Ecuador, and Venezuela. He launched critical initiatives with Panama and Cuba. Kissinger also bolstered and coddled murderous military dictators who trampled on basic human rights. South American military dictators whom Kissinger favored committed international terrorism in Europe and the Western Hemisphere.


2007 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 691-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher Browning ◽  
Marko Lehti

Since the end of the Cold War it has become common for Finnish academics and politicians alike to frame debates about Finnish national identity in terms of locating Finland somewhere along a continuum between East and West. Indeed, for politicians, properly locating oneself (and therefore Finland) along this continuum has often been seen as central to the winning and losing of elections. For example, the 1994 referendum on EU membership was largely interpreted precisely as an opportunity to relocate Finland further to the West. Indeed, the tendency to depict Finnish history in terms of a series of “Westernizing” moves has been notable, but has also betrayed some of the politicized elements of this view. However, this framing of Finnish national identity discourse is not only sometimes politicized but arguably is also too simplified and results in blindness towards other identity narratives that have also been important through Finnish history, and that are also evident (but rarely recognized) today as well. In this article we aim to highlight one of these that we argue has played a key role in locating Finland in the world and in formulating notions of what Finland is about, what historical role and mission it has been understood as destined to play, and what futures for the nation have been conceptualized as possible and as providing a source of subjectivity and national dignity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12(48) (4) ◽  
pp. 69-85
Author(s):  
Alla Kyrydon ◽  
Sergiy Troyan

Conceptual approaches to understanding the current stage of the evolution of international relations were put in place during the destruction of the bipolar world of the Cold War and the formation of new foundations of the world and international order. The distinctiveness of this process is that the collapse of the postwar system took place in peaceful conditions. Most often, two terms are used to describe the interconnectedness and interdependence of world politics after the fall of the Iron Curtain: the post-bipolar (post-westphalian) international system or international relations after the end of the Cold War. Two terms, post-bipolar international system and international relations after the end of the Cold War, have common features, which usually allows them to be used as synonyms and makes them the most popular when choosing a common comprehensive definition for the modern international relations. The collapse of the Soviet bloc and the global bipolar system put on the agenda issues that cannot be resolved within the traditional terms “poles,” “balance of power,” “configuration of the balance of power” etc. The world has entered a period of uncertainty and growing risks. the global international system is experiencing profound shocks associated with the transformation of its structure, changes in its interaction with the environment, which accordingly affects its regional and peripheral dimensions. In modern post-bipolar relations of shaky equilibrium, there is an obvious focus on the transformation of the world international order into a “post-American world” with the critical dynamics of relations between old and new actors at the global level. The question of the further evolution of the entire system of international relations in the post-bipolar world and the tendency of its transformation from a confrontational to a system of cooperation remains open.


Author(s):  
Sylvia Ellis

The 1960 presidential election was the first modern campaign and one that took place at the height of the Cold War. The closeness of the election outcome led scholars to ask what tipped the balance in John F. Kennedy’s favor. However, as Robert Divine pointed out some years ago, we can also ask why did he not win more convincingly given recent American defeats abroad? Although numerous foreign policy issues engaged the candidates during the 1960 campaign, this chapter focuses on the three major issues that came to life during the campaign—Cuba, the Soviets, and the tiny offshore islands of Quemoy and Matsu—and to argue that Kennedy fumbled in his handling of all three but still managed to convince enough of the US electorate that he could be trusted to lead the nation on the world stage.


2021 ◽  
Vol 3 (3) ◽  
pp. 33-40
Author(s):  
Abdoulaye MFONKA

The international system is regularly changing whether in times of peace or crisis. This sometimes makes it very complex to determine precisely who the “policeman of the world” is. This position varies according to the context. Since the end of 2019, the world has been facing a severe health crisis caused by a new virus, SAR-Cov 2, also known as Coronavirus or Covid-19. The question on everyone’s minds is whether this health crisis will redefine of the poles of stability and power in the global system. It appears to be a strong factor that will revive the latent and manifest positioning struggles that have shaken the international system since the end of the cold war, a system seized by unimultipolarity and the leadership quarrels of the emerging powers. We may or not end up with the overthrow of the current world order with regards to the managerial approach to the crisis by the various world powers.


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