223 research outputs found

    Perestroika and Market Socialism: The Effects of Communism\u27s Slow Thaw on East-West Economic Relations

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    The United States post-war foreign policy towards the East has been dominated by a strategic-military orientation. This Perspective will examine East-West relations from a new perspective, one in which an improved climate of economic relations, based upon mutually beneficial trade and investment contacts between the United States and the major communist nations, provides a complement for diplomatic efforts to reduce global military tensions. The threshold analytical premise of this study is that United States foreign policy must be addressed as a comprehensive whole, and that foreign economic, human rights, political and geostrategic policies are not only interdependent, but indivisible. Decisions about United States foreign economic policy therefore must of necessity flow from an initial assessment of the geopolitical milieu in which strategic issues arise. A gradual shift from a strategic-military orientation to a strategic-economic orientation in United States foreign policy may now be possible because of contemporary changes in the Soviet Union and the People\u27s Republic of China (China). These two communist nations will provide the principal case studies for analysis herein of recent reforms in communist countries and their implications for East-West relations

    The Effect of the Gorbachev Era (1985-1991) on Newsweek\u27s Photo Coverage and Image of the Soviet Union

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    This study examined 729 photos and cutlines published in NEWSWEEK\u27s International Section that depicted events that occurred in the Soviet Union during the Gorbachev Era (1985-1991). The period saw change in Soviet domestic affairs (especially glasnost) and foreign relations (especially New Political Thinking or NPT) that cumulatively led to the end of the Cold War. NEWSWEEK coverage of the Gorbachev Era was compared to NEWSWEEK coverage of the Chernenko interlude (February 1984-February 1985) in order to have a base line for comparison. NEWSWEEK increased its coverage of the Soviet Union during the Gorbachev Era. There were more editions, photos, and cutlines that depicted the era. A more diverse mix of content was covered. An increase occurred in content that prior to glasnost was considered taboo. NEWSWEEK depicted the Soviet Union in a more positive way in terms of Slant, Image, and Overall Image. International relations were depicted positively, Gorbachev and his spouse were depicted positively, but domestic turmoil was depicted negatively. NEWSWEEK had many gatekeepers. Photojournalists were important gatekeepers. Photos and cutlines were important conveyors of content and image. It was more difficult to measure latent content of photos than manifest content

    Bringing Down the Barriers: American Laws That Impede Trade With the CIS

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    It is necessary first to establish whether current trade restrictions apply to all former constituent parts of the Soviet Union or only to Russia. Second, the American-Russian trade relationship resembles a minefield. Some of the most powerful trade restrictions remain firmly in place. Others have been defused. This article will attempt to provide some guidance through the minefield. Finally, attention will be given to pending legislation that affects trade with Russia. Hopefully, this analysis will provide some insight into: (1) the past U.S. trade with the former Soviet Union; (2) where the relationship is now; and (3) what direction it should go in light of the demise of the USSR and the rise of the CIS and other independent states

    Carrying a Big Carrot: Linking Multilateral Disarmament and Development Assistance

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    This article proposes, as a new element of the liberal internationalism that should characterize the post-Cold War world, a simultaneous solution to these three problems. The nations of the world should negotiate a series of multilateral agreements to stop the spread of advanced weaponry, and include in each of them, as an overt incentive for developing states to accept the disarmament and verification obligations, provisions that explicitly require the affluent, developed states to make specified monetary and in-kind transfers to the third world parties. The new regime should also provide stronger-than-customary treaty procedures for clarifying ambiguities, adjudicating claims, and resolving disputes, and should designate one or more multilateral administrative and enforcement agencies dedicated to furthering the agreements. In short, the wealthy countries, which stand to benefit the most from the establishment of a more stable international military environment, should be willing to pay for it. They should provide aid and commercial grants to the developing states that, in turn, should agree to accept significant, verifiable limitations, particularly on high-technology armaments, as an explicit condition for these important financial advantages. While this package approach will not by itself solve all the security difficulties of the next century, it offers the best hope for gaining control over some of them and for channeling our collective energies into productive and mutually beneficial enterprises. The argument of the article is developed in the following six parts. Part I examines the problem of multilateral disarmament, summarizing the progress registered to date and the areas in which more needs to be done. It also demonstrates that the coming decades, even after the ending of the Cold War, will present stark new threats to United States security and world peace, threats that existing arms control institutions and treaty regimes have been unable to anticipate and preempt. Part II addresses the problems of economic development, drawing on the literature describing the importance of judicious foreign assistance in promoting sound economic growth in marginal economies, and assessing the international community\u27s currently inadequate response to this need. It describes the third world\u27s stake in economic development and presents the case for the advanced societies to do more--out of sheer economic and political self-interest, if nothing else. Part III then suggests that future arms control imperatives will present challenges and dangers that are systematically different from those that the world has confronted--and resolved inadequately--in the past. It marshals the evidence for the propositions that the world\u27s current strategies for dampening international conflict through existing types of treaty regimes are already insufficient, and that the trend is worsening. Part IV presents our proposal for a tradeoff, with the developed states frankly buying the arms control they need, and paying for it with guaranteed levels of development assistance that the poor states need. This Part then outlines seven principles that underlie the proposal as a whole and presents some of the nuts and bolts that could make it operational. While the suggestion may seem radical at first blush--legalized bribery or economic imperialism in some eyes--we think it offers a realistic, efficient solution to otherwise intractable global threats. Part V deals with some of the most serious objections that might be raised against our strategy, discussing the morality of the tradeoff, its political acceptability, the precedents for it, and possible alternatives to it. Finally, the Conclusion offers some observations about the proposal as one component in an overdue, more subtle, conceptualization of national security. The author’s thesis is that international agreements linking multilateral disarmament and economic development, though novel and potentially risky, offer the most promising way out of the international community\u27s emerging security impasse. Their program would give both developed and developing states what they need. It would fashion a flexible, enforceable scheme for dealing with the complex fears and incentives that are otherwise unaddressed or confined to under-the-table bargaining. Explicit trading may not seem palatable at first, but equipping future treaties with both positive incentives and negative sanctions, rather than relying exclusively upon negative sanctions alone, could prove to be far more tolerable than any of the alternatives

    Perestroika and Priroda: Environmental Protection in the USSR

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    This article reviews the initial Soviet decisions through 1988, applying perestroika to the problem of protecting priroda. Surveyed here is the scope of the ecological problems in the USSR and traditional responses, followed by an examination of the current Soviet policy to restructure its administrative and legal system for environmental protection. These initial reforms will not all result in a direct or immediate improvement of the Soviet environmental protection regime. For instance, the reforms also are stimulating the Soviet not in my backyard (NIMBY) phenomenon, or local opposition to the siting of developments ranging from electrical power plants, to facilities needed for treatment of sewage or hazardous wastes. Some of these environmental reforms and their collateral effects, as in the NIMBY phenomenon, will conflict with and impede the new Soviet policy of uskorenie, or acceleration of socio-economic development

    The rhetoric of presidential summit diplomacy: Ronald Reagan and the U.S. Soviet summits, 1985-1988

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    President Ronald Reagan participated in more U.S.-Soviet summits than any previous U.S. president, as he met with his Soviet counterpart, Mikhail Gorbachev, on four occasions between November 1985 and June 1988. Prior to, during, and following each meeting with Gorbachev, Reagan often engaged in the rhetoric of public diplomacy, including speeches, statements, and media interviews. The four Reagan- Gorbachev summits accompanied significant changes in U.S.-Soviet relations, in the Cold War, and also within the Soviet Union. Many scholars attribute improved U.S.- Soviet relations to a change in Reagan’s Soviet rhetoric and policies, arguing that he abandoned the confrontation of his first term for conciliation during his second term. Other scholars argue that Reagan failed to abandon confrontation and, consequently, missed opportunities to support the liberalization of the Soviet system. Based upon close analysis of Reagan’s summit rhetoric, this dissertation contends that he did not abandon his confrontational policy objectives, but he did modify his rhetoric about the Soviets. Reagan reformulated the conventional Cold War rhetoric of rapprochement that emphasized nuclear arms controls as the path to world peace by emphasizing increased U.S.-Soviet trust as prerequisite to new arms treaties. Reagan’s summit rhetoric emphasized the need for the Soviets to make changes in non-nuclear arms areas as a means of reducing international mistrust and increasing the likelihood of new U.S.- Soviet arms treaties. Reagan advocated that the Soviets participate in increased bilateral people-to-people exchanges, demonstrate respect for human rights, and disengage from various regional conflicts, especially Afghanistan. Reagan adopted a dualistic strategy that combined confrontation and conciliation as he sought to promote those changes in Soviet policies and practices. During his second term as president, Reagan made his confrontational rhetoric less strident and also used more conciliatory discourse. At the same time, he subsumed his anti-Soviet objectives within his conciliatory rhetoric. This rhetorical strategy allowed Reagan to continue to advocate anti-Soviet objectives while at the same time seeking to promote improved relations and world peace. The findings of this dissertation suggest that existing scholarly views of Reagan’s summit rhetoric and his role in promoting the liberalization of the Soviet system should be reconsidered

    Library development in the Georgian Republic: problems and progress since the dissolution of the USSR.

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    The paper provides a situation report on the state of libraries and information services, publishing and bookselling in the Republic of Georgia in the South Caucasus. It briefly describes their development, outlines the international development assistance that they have received during the last twenty years, describes their current situation, and indicates some of their future needs

    La Salle Magazine Fall 1989

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    https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/lasalle_magazine/1127/thumbnail.jp

    "The Vision Thing": George H.W. Bush and the Battle For American Conservatism 1988_1992

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    Honors (Bachelor's)HistoryUniversity of Michiganhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/91878/1/paulmw.pd
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