The CIA and the USSR: The Challenge of Understanding the Soviet Threat

2020 ◽  
pp. 64-76
Author(s):  
Huw Dylan ◽  
David V. Gioe ◽  
Michael S. Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Policy Direction ◽  
Soviet Threat

This chapter outlines how countering the perceived threat from the USSR became the central mission of the CIA. It also details just how little information the CIA had to work with, and how central judgements and analysis came to be in shaping policy direction about possible USSR actions. Developing analytical capabilities was key to this, and it was institutionalised in CIA as early as 1946 with the creation of the Office of Reports and Estimates. Meanwhile, the CIA continued to evolve. Particularly significant in this regard was Walter Bedell Smith. Document: Intelligence on the Soviet Bloc

The Formation of the Soviet Bloc's Council for Mutual Economic Assistance: Romania's Involvement

2012 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 34-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elena Dragomir
Keyword(s):  
Division Of Labor ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Economic Assistance ◽  
Mutual Economic ◽  
Mutual Economic Assistance ◽  
The Creation ◽  
1960S And 1970S ◽  
The 1960S

This article discusses Romania's role in the creation of the Soviet bloc's Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) in January 1949. The article explains why Romanian leaders, with Soviet approval, proposed the creation of the CMEA and why the proposal was adopted. An analysis of Romania's support for the creation of the CMEA sheds interesting light on the stance taken by Romania in the 1960s and 1970s against the Soviet Union's attempts to use the CMEA in forging a supranational division of labor in the Soviet bloc. Romania's opposition was largely in accord with the objectives originally envisaged by Romanian leaders when the CMEA was formed.

The Uses (and Abuses) of Secret Power

Worldview ◽  
1975 ◽  
Vol 18 (5) ◽  
pp. 11-15 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry Howe Ransom
Keyword(s):  
Foreign Policy ◽  
Cold War ◽  
National Security ◽  
Policy Instruments ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Centralized Control ◽  
American Democracy ◽  
Policy Elite ◽  
The Creation

I begin, with apologies, by mentioning two of my own books; Can American Democracy Survive Cold War? (1963) and The Intelligence Establishment (1970). The titles say much about the development of a debate that promises to be with us for some time.The first title/question posed the dilemma of an American democracy facing a perceived threat (perceived at least by the foreign policy elite) to national security. An assumed monolithic “world communism” provoked the creation of a vast arsenal of foreign policy instruments, including espionage and covert political operations overseas. Managing mis mammoth security apparatus required highly centralized control. Indeed, at times it required deception, lying, and deep secrecy.

Cuba

2019 ◽  
pp. 91-112
Author(s):  
Thomas K. Rudel
Keyword(s):  
Twentieth Century ◽  
Foreign Exchange ◽  
Agricultural Production ◽  
The State ◽  
Soviet Bloc ◽  
Chemical Fertilizers ◽  
Ecological Farming ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Chemical Inputs ◽  
Trade Deals

Cuba became the pre-eminent producer of sugarcane during the early twentieth century through the development of input-intensive, industrial sugarcane plantations. Pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary plantations became extraordinarily reliant on imported inputs like chemical fertilizers to support high levels of production. Favorable trade deals with Soviet bloc countries assured Cubans of a market for their high-priced sugarcane. With the collapse of the Soviet bloc in the early 1990s, this market disappeared, and Cuba no longer had the foreign exchange it needed to purchase foodstuffs for Cuban citizens and chemical fertilizers for sugarcane plantations. Cuban citizens responded to the dearth of food through repeasantization. People began cultivating gardens in cities, and the state began to encourage the creation of small farms. Agro-ecological farming became the favored method of agricultural production because it did not require expensive, imported chemical inputs.

Conclusion

2018 ◽  
pp. 81-86
Author(s):  
Mary Gilmartin ◽  
Patricia Burke Wood ◽  
Cian O’Callaghan
Keyword(s):  
Political Activism ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Democratic Values ◽  
Place Of Residence ◽  
Citizenship Rights ◽  
Liberal Democratic ◽  
Exclusionary Policies ◽  
The Creation

This concluding chapter summarizes key themes. This book has shown that migration and citizenship rights are again coming under sustained attack. States have long used their control over migration and citizenship to demonstrate their power, while, at the same time, espousing liberal-democratic values that run contrary to these acts of control. The responses to the perceived threat posed by migration take three key forms: the reinforcement of borders, efforts to regulate mobility, and limiting the ability of people to develop a sense of formal belonging in their place of residence. These disruptions have opened a space for heightened forms of nationalism and exclusionary policies, and enabled the creation of new forms of political activism and subjectivity that seek to expand and recast what it means to move and to belong.

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