Cold War Monks

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eugene Ford
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
National Security ◽  
Oral History ◽  
The State ◽  
Key Informants ◽  
Communist Revolution ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Oral History Interviews ◽  
The U.S

How did the U.S. government make use of a “Buddhist policy” in Southeast Asia during the Cold War despite the American principle that the state should not meddle with religion? To answer this question, this book's author delved deep into an unprecedented range of U.S. and Thai sources and conducted numerous oral history interviews with key informants. The author uncovers a riveting story filled with U.S. national security officials, diplomats, and scholars seeking to understand and build relationships within the Buddhist monasteries of Southeast Asia. This fascinating narrative provides a new look at how the Buddhist leaderships of Thailand and its neighbors became enmeshed in Cold War politics and in the U.S. government's clandestine efforts to use a predominant religion of Southeast Asia as an instrument of national stability to counter communist revolution.

Human (In)Security

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna Hayes
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Human Security ◽  
The State ◽  
Human Rights Abuses ◽  
Significant Challenge ◽  
Humanitarian Crises ◽  
Privileged Status ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
The Cold War

The 1990s was host to a range of conflicts emerging from weak or failed states. These conflicts typically involved significant humanitarian crises and widespread human rights abuses. Within this changing global environment, new security thinking started to engage “people” as the referent of security, moving away from the previous privileged status granted to the state as the only referent of security. The end of the Cold War enabled the human security paradigm to provide a significant challenge to the primacy of the state in security thinking. On the other hand, human security has been subject to much criticism and there has been heated debate over its applicability within the security agenda. This chapter argues that despite earlier concerns over its efficacy, human security has made inroads into security thinking and is mutually reinforcing to national security.

Violent Origins of Authoritarian Variation: Rebellion Type and Regime Type in Cold War Southeast Asia

2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dan Slater
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Southeast Asia ◽  
The State ◽  
Regime Type ◽  
Critical Question ◽  
Authoritarian Rule ◽  
Historical Case ◽  
Different Types ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Military

AbstractDictatorships are every bit as institutionally diverse as democracies, but where does this variation come from? This article argues that different types of internal rebellion influence the emergence of different types of authoritarian regimes. The critical question is whether rebel forces primarily seek to seize state power or to escape it. Regional rebellions seeking toescapethe state raise the probability of a military-dominated authoritarian regime, since they are especially likely to unify the military while heightening friction between civilian and military elites. Leftist rebellions seeking toseizethe state are more likely to give rise to civilian-dominated dictatorships by inspiring ‘joint projects’ in which military elites willingly support party-led authoritarian rule. Historical case studies of Burma, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam illustrate the theory, elaborating how different types of violent conflict helped produce different types of dictatorships across the breadth of mainland and island Southeast Asia during the Cold War era.

scholarly journals The connections between crisis and war preparedness in Sweden

2020 ◽  
pp. 096701062093684
Author(s):  
Oscar L Larsson
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Crisis Management ◽  
Human Life ◽  
The State ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Moral Dimension ◽  
New Type ◽  
Security Planning ◽  
The Cold War

Contemporary liberal and democratic states have ‘securitized’ a growing number of issues by advancing the notion of societal security. This is coupled with a proactive stance and the conception of building societal resilience in order to withstand future crises and disturbances. The preemptive logic of contemporary security and crisis management calls for a new type of resilient neoliberal subject who is willing to accept uncertainty and shoulder greater individual responsibility for her own security. This article offers a genealogical analysis of this development in Sweden since the end of the Cold War, highlighting the role now assigned to citizens within social and national security planning. I argue that seeking a return to a more traditional notion of ‘total defence’ blurs the previously important war/peace and crisis/security distinctions. While war preparedness in previous eras was an exceptional aspect of human life and citizenship, the conceptions of security now evolving bind together societal and national security such that civil and war preparedness are merged into an ever-present dimension of everyday existence. The analysis also reveals that the responsibilization of individuals introduces a moral dimension into security and generates new forms of citizen–citizen relations. These extricate the sovereign powers of the state and the liberalist social contract between the state and its citizens.

scholarly journals Organizing the Mechanism of Conducting the “Secret War” of the USA Against the Sandinista Regime of 1984

2020 ◽  
pp. 77-89
Author(s):  
Democrit Zamanapulov
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Comparative Method ◽  
Main Tool ◽  
The United States ◽  
Scientific Development ◽  
Special Operations ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

Introduction. In Russian historiography, the issue of the reasons for the beginning of the U.S. special operations in Nicaragua is a complex problem that requires careful development due to its importance as one of the elements of the confrontation during the Cold War. The scientific relevance of this issue is determined by the insufficient degree of its study. The socio-political relevance is related to the current military-political situation in the world in general and the actions of the United States in particular, which, as part of ensuring their national security, use special operations to achieve certain goals and objectives. An example of this is the U.S.-led special operation to destroy Osama bin Laden, during which the sovereignty of Pakistan was violated. Another example of U.S. special operations at the present stage is Washington’s support of the “proxy” forces loyal to it in Syria. Special operations conducted by the United States in Nicaragua during the first half of the 80s were in many ways the main tool for achieving U.S. state interests in this country. In this regard, it seems that a detailed consideration of the first attempt in the history of the United States to conduct a global special operation, which began with the program of supporting the anti-Communist forces “Contras” in Nicaragua, which was later funded by the illegal supply of American weapons to Iran, would be useful for the domestic scientific doctrine. Methods and materials. In the course of the research, the historical-comparative method, the method of analysis and synthesis, as well as the system approach are applied. The study uses: 1) a set of unpublished materials on the special activities of the United States in Nicaragua, declassified in connection with the “Iran-Contra” scandal, and contained on the electronic website of the National Security Archive at the George Washington University; 2) published sources related to the Cold War; 3) scientific literature on the problems of U.S. special operations during the cold war; 4) memoir literature. Analysis. This article analyzes the reasons that influenced the decision of the U.S. political leadership to authorize special operations in Nicaragua based on the documents and materials studied in the Iran-Contra Affair. Results. The scientific development of the problems of the U.S. special policy in Nicaragua was observed back in the 80s in the USSR. However, it was conducted in hot pursuit, it was biased, considered a complex set of processes taking place in Central America from the perspective of the Marxist-Leninist doctrine, and did not take into account the American position, which made the scientific assessment of these events less complete and justified. New studies of this period take this factor into account, are based on new methods and previously unknown to the scientific community documents and materials that were declassified after the end of the Cold War. Results. In the course of the study, an attempt was made to highlight the mechanism for the development and implementation of U.S. special operations in Nicaragua. The author concludes that the use of the National Security Council personnel for special operations was conditioned by the need to avoid legislative restrictions of the U.S. Congress when implementing U.S. foreign policy in Nicaragua.

scholarly journals Freedom's "Flying Snake": The AIM-9 Sidewinder in the Cold War

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Young
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Eastern Bloc ◽  
Military Technology ◽  
Cold War Era ◽  
Changing Times ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

During the Cold War, the simplicity of the Air Intercept Missile (AIM)-9 Sidewinder, as well as its potential for growth, allowed it to continually adapt to the changing times. Whether destroying Communist aircraft to facilitate U.S. national security interests, deterring potential Eastern Bloc aggression in Europe, or allowing U.S. allies to seize air superiority during combat operations, the Sidewinder represents a ubiquitous element of airpower for Western interests. As such, it deserves to be recognized as a key component of the U.S. Cold War-era military technology and one of the nation’s greatest military investments.

scholarly journals 72 YEARS IN THE SERVICE. AN OVERVIEW OF RUSSIAN LANGUAGE MILITARY LINGUISTS’ TRAINING AT THE U.S. DEFENSE LANGUAGE INSTITUTE

2021 ◽  
pp. 98-106
Author(s):  
С.И. Гребенкин
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
The United States ◽  
Russian Language ◽  
Future Needs ◽  
Defense Language Institute ◽  
To Come ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

Преподавание русского языка в Военном институте иностранных языков Министерства обороны США ведется с 1947 г. За 72 года существования русские программы института играли и сейчас продолжают играть важную роль в обеспечении национальной безопасности США и их союзников. Реализация этих программ всегда напрямую зависела от характера отношений между США и СССР/РФ. Сегодня на фоне геополитических изменений в мире Военный институт и его программы по обучению русскому языку военнослужащих МО США вносят свой неоценимый вклад в подготовку нового поколения военных лингвистов-русистов. Russian has been taught at the U.S. Defense Language Institute without interruption since 1947. Over the last 72 years the Russian programs have played a distinguished role in the national security of the United States and its allies. The size of the Russian programs closely reflected the nature of the Cold War between the United States and the USSR. Today the Defense Language Institute and its Russian programs stand ready to meet future needs of the nation as its relationship with Russia undergoes further changes in the years to come.

Other ’68ers in West Berlin: Christian Democratic Students and the Cold War City

2017 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 86-112 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anna von der Goltz
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Oral History ◽  
Student Movement ◽  
Student Activists ◽  
The Us ◽  
West Berlin ◽  
The One ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Oral History Interviews ◽  
The City

AbstractMany of the most iconic moments of Germany's “1968” took place in the walled confines of West Berlin, the emblematic Cold War city often referred to as the “capital of the revolt.” Most accounts portray the events in West Berlin as having been characterized by confrontations between the leftist student movement, on the one hand, and a conservative press and generally hostile, older, urban population, on the other. This article rethinks and refines existing historiographical narratives of the 1968 student movement in West Berlin, as well as of West Berlin's place in the student movement. It examines the actions and experiences of student activists in West Berlin, who rarely feature in the familiar narrative—namely, Christian Democratic activists, particularly those from the Association of Christian Democratic Students (RCDS). Using oral history interviews, memoirs, and a wide array of archival sources from German and US archives, the article sheds light on the background of some of the most important conservative players and discusses the manifold ways in which they engaged with the goals of the revolutionary left in the city. The analysis pays special attention to the effects that German division and life in West Berlin had on Christian Democratic activists, to the sources of their anti-Communism, and to their views about the US-led war in Vietnam, a major Cold War conflict that carried special resonance in the divided city. The article concludes that there were important (yet shifting and often porous) dividing lines in West Berlin's “1968” other than those that separated politicized students from an older and more conservative city leadership and population, a conclusion that calls for a modification of the familiar storyline that simply pits Rudi Dutschke and others on the left against the city's “establishment.” The article suggests that this has repercussions for interpretations of the student movement that center on generation. It argues, in short, that Christian Democratic students—activists who were, in effect, other ’68ers—helped to shape and were, in turn, shaped by the events that took place in West Berlin in 1968.

The Cold War and Its Transnational Imprint in the Americas

2021 ◽  
pp. 133-158
Author(s):  
Luis Roniger
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Latin American ◽  
Crimes Against Humanity ◽  
Operation Condor ◽  
School Of The Americas ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The U.S

This chapter addresses the geopolitics of the Cold War and its transnational imprint on Latin America. It starts by discussing the rise of the U.S. to hemispheric hegemony, and analyzes U.S. policies and their interplay with domestic constellations of power. Interested in curtailing the advance of the revolutionary Left and radical insurgent movements, the region witnessed a forceful takeover of power and the adoption of transnational counter-insurgency operations, such as Operation Condor, that undermined the rule of law and produced atrocious records of crimes against humanity. The chapter offers an overview of the impact of this geopolitical configuration on Latin American societies, including the controversial role of the School of the Americas, the prevailing doctrines of National Security and the organic conception of nations that led to a genocidal turn in the context of the Cold War.

Introduction

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy J. Minchin
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Oral History ◽  
National Organization ◽  
Working People ◽  
History Of ◽  
Domestic Affairs ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
Oral History Interviews

The introduction explains how the history of the AFL-CIO has been neglected, especially in the period since 1979, when Lane Kirkland took over from George Meany as president. What has been written - on fragmented parts of the AFL-CIO’s history - has usually been very hostile, particularly in terms of criticizing the AFL-CIO’s support for U.S. foreign policy during the Cold War, its bureaucratization, and its patchy civil rights record. I explain that my aim is to write a balanced history that recognizes the AFL-CIO’s achievements and its limitations, and focuses largely on domestic affairs. The book draws on newly-available archive sources, particularly unprocessed parts of the AFL-CIO Papers, and more than sixty oral history interviews conducted by the author. The introduction highlights the AFL-CIO’s ongoing relevance as the only mass membership, national organization fighting for working people in Washington. The AFL-CIO has performed this role – as the “People’s Lobby” - since it was established in 1955. The AFL-CIO speaks for all Americans who work, and - despite a media interest in union decline - in 2011 it still had more than 12 million members.

Philip Wayne Powell, the Cold War, and the Conquest of Northern Mexico

2015 ◽  
Vol 31 (2) ◽  
pp. 287-304
Author(s):  
Raphael B. Folsom
Keyword(s):  
Cold War ◽  
Political Ideology ◽  
Colonial Mexico ◽  
Northern Mexico ◽  
The Cold War ◽  
The U.S

The writings of the U.S. scholar Philip Wayne Powell have had an enduring influence on the historiography of colonial Mexico and the Spanish borderlands. But his writings have never been examined as a unified corpus, and so the deeply reactionary political ideology that lay behind them has never been well understood. By analyzing Powell’s political convictions, this article shows how contemporary scholarship on the conquest of northern Mexico can emerge from Powell’s long shadow. Los escritos del estudioso estadounidense Philip Wayne Powell han ejercido una influencia perdurable sobre la historiografía del México colonial y las zonas fronterizas españolas. Sin embargo, dichos escritos nunca han sido examinados como un corpus unificado, de manera que la ideología política profundamente reaccionaria detrás de ellos nunca ha sido bien comprendida. Al analizar las convicciones políticas de Powell, el presente artículo muestra cómo puede surgir un conocimiento contemporáneo sobre la conquista del norte de México a partir de la larga sombra de Powell.

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