Shaping the World

2021 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 41-55
Author(s):  
Asif Siddiqi
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Global Network ◽  
Camera Network ◽  
The Earth ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
Technical Artifacts ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
African Sahel

Abstract This article explores the biography of a network of Soviet telescopic cameras stationed across the African Sahel during the Cold War. Through joint Soviet-African cooperative programs, scientists used these advanced cameras in Egypt, Somalia, Mali, the Sudan, and Chad to photograph satellites flying overhead to gather data to produce a new model of the Earth, one that Soviet scientists hoped would be an alternative to Western models. I argue that these technical artifacts in Africa, connected into a single global network, represented examples of “infrastructural irruptions” of Cold War technopolitics into African geography, wherein the superpowers placed networked technologies inside postcolonial spaces for the collection of data. Although these technologies were nominally Soviet in origin, the story could also be read as one of Africans who invested their geography with agency in the production of scientific knowledge. Like the socialist moment in Africa and indeed the Soviet Union itself, this camera network no longer exists, its data compromised and its material imprint disappeared. But this “failure” should not blind us to the immanent power of possibility embedded in this incomplete project. I argue that this combination of unbounded aspiration and incomplete materiality was a powerful manifestation of the African-Soviet Modern.

The Development of the United Nations Law Concerning Peace-Keeping Operations

1992 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 273-281
Author(s):  
Robert Siekmann
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Central America ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
New Thinking ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Moment ◽  
The Cold War

Especially as a consequence of the termination of the Cold War, the détente in the relations between East en West (Gorbachev's ‘new thinking’ in foreign policy matters) and, finally, the disappearance of the Soviet Union, the number of UN peace-keeping operations substantially increased in recent years. One could even speak of a ‘proliferation’. Until 1988 the number of operations was twelve (seven peace-keeping forces: UNEF ‘I’ and ‘II’, ONUC, UNHCYP, UNSF (West New Guinea), UNDOF AND UNIFIL; and five military observer missions: UNTSO, UNMOGIP, UNOGIL, UNYOM and UNIPOM). Now, three forces and seven observer missions can be added. The forces are MINURSO (West Sahara), UNTAC (Cambodia) and UNPROFOR (Yugoslavia); the observer groups: UNGOMAP (Afghanistan/Pakistan), UNIIMOG (Iran/Iraq), UNAVEM ‘I’ and ‘II’ (Angola), ONUCA (Central America), UNIKOM (Iraq/Kuwait) and ONUSAL (El Salvador). UNTAG (Namibia), which was established in 1978, could not become operational until 1989 as a result of the new political circumstances in the world. So, a total of twenty-three operations have been undertaken, of which almost fifty percent was established in the last five years, whereas the other half was the result of decisions taken by the United Nations in the preceding forty years (UNTSO dates back to 1949). In the meantime, some ‘classic’ operations are being continued (UNTSO, UNMOGIP, UNFICYP, UNDOF, and UNIFIL), whereas some ‘modern’ operations already have been terminated as planned (UNTAG, UNGOMAP, UNIIMOG, UNAVEM ‘I’ and ‘II’, and ONUCA). At the moment (July 1992) eleven operations are in action – the greatest number in the UN history ever.

8. Collapsing Empires: The Cold War Battle for Hearts and Minds, 1953–63

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Young ◽  
John Kent
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
French Empire ◽  
Suez Crisis ◽  
Black Africa ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Hearts And Minds

This chapter examines how the United States and the Soviet Union sought to win the hearts and minds of people in various parts of the world as empires began to collapse during the period 1953–1963. It begins with a discussion of the end of the French Empire, taking into account the loss of French Indo-China and the start of American involvement in Vietnam, along with the collapse of French rule in Morocco and Tunisia. It then considers the crises in the Congo, Angola, and the Middle East, focusing on the zenith of the Cold War in Black Africa, Britain’s declining power, and the Suez crisis. It concludes by looking at the end of the British Empire in Africa.

Conflict Analysis and Resolution as a Field

2010 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louis Kriesberg
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Conflict Analysis ◽  
Rapid Expansion ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
Conflict Analysis And Resolution ◽  
The World ◽  
Global Communications ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
World Environment

Conflict analysis and resolution (CAR) is defined by a set of ideas about avoiding, minimizing, and stopping violence that often is mutually destructive. CAR relates to all domains of conflicts, whether within or between families, organizations, communities, or countries. The CAR field emerged between 1946 and 1969, as numerous wars and crises erupted, associated with the Cold War and the national liberation struggles of the decolonization process. Many doctrines, theories, and research appeared to explain and influence those conflicts. New governmental and nongovernmental actions were also undertaken to prevent future wars by building transnational institutions and fostering reconciliation between former enemies. The rapid expansion and institutionalization of CAR began in the early 1970s, when many American pioneers in the field became discouraged by their failure to accomplish more during the 1950s and 1960s. The end of the Cold War in 1989 and collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 profoundly changed the world environment. Several developments contributed to limiting destructive international and domestic conflicts. These include the increasing economic integration of the world and the intensification of global communications; the growing adherence to norms protecting human rights; increasing number of democratic countries; and growing engagement of women in governance. Core CAR concepts include conflict analysis, conflict fluidity and subjectivity, and multiplicity of actors.

scholarly journals REVIEW: New World myths

1994 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 96-97
Author(s):  
David Robie
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
World Economy ◽  
New World ◽  
World Order ◽  
New World Order ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
News Service ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War

Review of Whose Story? Reporting the Developing World After the Cold War, edited by Jill Spelliscy and Gerald B. Sperling, Calgary, Canada: Detselig Enterprises, 1993. 242 pp. 'I get terribly angry', remarks Daniel Nelson, editor of Gemini News Service, 'when journalists take the phrase, which is completly manufactured, "New World Order"—it's absolutely meaningless. Personally I don't think there is a New World Order. I think we have the same world order, but without the Soviet Union which was never a major part of the world economy. And if you live in Katmandu or Kampala, there is no change.'

scholarly journals FORMING THE IMAGE OF A SOVIET ENEMY: A STUDY OF THE AMERICAN PRESS AND OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS OF THE BEGINNING OF THE COLD WAR

2018 ◽  
pp. 49-51
Author(s):  
Yu. Yu. Shamatova
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Adult Population ◽  
Negative Image ◽  
White House ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
State Apparatus ◽  
The World ◽  
American Press ◽  
The Cold War

The article is devoted to a review of materials of the American press and official documents of the White House in 1946-1953-ies. The focus is on analyzing the techniques and methods used in periodical and daily publications to construct a negative image of yesterday's ally in the person of the Soviets. Informational and ideological indoctrination of the population affected not only the adult population, but also the younger generation. For this purpose, various comics were created, cards that contained information about the approaching threat from the USSR. As a result, by the early 1950s the state apparatus managed to radically change public opinion: the positive image of the Soviet Union in the eyes of Americans was replaced by skepticism about the future relations of the superpowers and confidence in the new war to cleanse the world of the "red plague".

scholarly journals Changes in Europe and the USSR: An Overview for Southern Agriculture and Agribusiness

1991 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
J.B. Penn
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Market Orientation ◽  
European Region ◽  
Eastern European ◽  
Sufficient Time ◽  
Political Pluralism ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War

The world was astonished in 1989 by the initial collapse of socialist institutions and subsequently by the pace at which change swept across the Eastern European region. For a time, even the Soviet Union seemed to be moving toward greater political pluralism, market orientation and the effective end of the Cold War. It is now approaching two years since this political convulsion began (in Poland). This is sufficient time to enable the transition programs to take form, and to permit informed speculation about the potential for their success and, ultimately, how the Eastern European and Soviet situations could affect the farming and food sectors of our economy.

5. Superpower

2019 ◽  
pp. 81-113
Author(s):  
Andrew Preston
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
World War ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Modern Era ◽  
Durable Peace

The modern era was the American century, but it was also very much the communist century. Between them, the United States and the Soviet Union held the fate of the world in their hands. If there was to be a just and durable peace after 1945, an understanding between Washington and Moscow would have to be its foundation. Instead, in a conflict quickly dubbed “the Cold War,” the world suffered through four decades of existential tension between the Soviets and the Americans. ‘Superpower’ explains why the Soviets and Americans moved from cooperating in a world war to resisting each other in the Cold War, before exploring the events and ending of the Cold War in the 1980s.

scholarly journals The Future of EU-Russian Relations: a Common European Home?

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 51-61
Author(s):  
Judas Everett
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Union Member ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
New Thinking ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Communist Countries ◽  
European Union Member States ◽  
The Eu

The Cold War was a confrontation dominated by dogmatic ideology; the rise of Gorbachev and his attempts to inject new thinking into the Soviet Union were critical in ending that standoff. Generally, Gorbachev was successful in the field of foreign policy and many of his ideas and actions created lasting legacies which have shaped the world today. However, one idea which failed to gain much traction was his proposal regarding a Common European Home. The aim of this paper is to examine how this opportunity was missed or why hasn’t it been taken advantage of, before moving on to analyse whether shared aims, freedoms, values and responsibilities exist between Russia and the EU today. Opinion polling shows that Russian values and opinions are complex, but often similar to other post-communist countries that have successfully become European Union member states. The issue of NATO expansion stands out as more problematic than a lack of shared values between the EU and Russian citizens.

How to Survive the ’80s

2021 ◽  
pp. 151-164
Author(s):  
David L. Pike
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
Electrical Power ◽  
Ronald Reagan ◽  
Industrial Complex ◽  
Antinuclear Movement ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
The Face ◽  
The Cold War

The original bunker fantasy had hinged around the Cuban Missile Crisis; its reemergence nearly two decades later was triggered by several new circumstances. By 1980, the threat of non-wartime nuclear accident had come to the forefront of the public imaginary in a newly immediate way. Ronald Reagan was elected president on a hardline stance towards the Soviet Union, escalating the Cold War to its hottest and most polarized moments since 1962. The nuclear condition now meant more than the omnipresent yet abstract risk of devastating war; by the early 1980s, it included the everyday fact of the infrastructure of electrical power, which became a focus of the antinuclear movement as it crystallized widespread suspicion over the military-industrial complex. The end still served to put the world in focus, but there was no longer any shelter to retreat to, rely upon, or even plead for; the bunker fantasy around 1983 afforded survival only by looking death in the face and protesting against it. Yet for all its stress on the linearity of survival, the fiction of the nuclear 1980s finds utopian moments in the brief opportunities it affords for thinking laterally, beyond or around the blinkered causality that had the world locked into an infinite play of near-annihilation inherited from 1962. In their very extremity, the self-regarding conventions of the ’80s open up their own critical perspective through the earlier Cold War onto the decade’s new survivalism.

8. Collapsing Empires: The Cold War Battle for Hearts and Minds, 1953–63

2020 ◽  
pp. 203-230
Author(s):  
John W. Young ◽  
John Kent
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Soviet Union ◽  
The United States ◽  
French Empire ◽  
Suez Crisis ◽  
Black Africa ◽  
The Soviet Union ◽  
The World ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Hearts And Minds

This chapter examines how the United States and the Soviet Union sought to win the hearts and minds of people in various parts of the world as empires began to collapse during the period 1953–63. It begins with a discussion of the end of the French Empire, taking into account the loss of French Indo-China and the start of American involvement in Vietnam, along with the collapse of French rule in Morocco and Tunisia. It then considers the crises in the Congo, Angola, and the Middle East, focusing on the zenith of the Cold War in Black Africa, Britain’s declining power, and the Suez Crisis. It concludes by looking at the end of the British Empire in Africa.

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