Changing Course Ideas, Politics, and the Soviet Withdrawal from Afghanistan

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Mendelson, Sarah E., Author.

Contributor:

Mendelson, Sarah E.

Series:

Princeton studies in international history and politics.

Princeton Studies in International History and Politics ; 145

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Afghanistan--History--Soviet occupation, 1979-1989.

Afghanistan.

Soviet Union--Foreign relations--Afghanistan.

Soviet Union.

Soviet Union--Politics and government--1985-1991.

Soviet Union--Foreign relations--1985-1991.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (158 p.)

Edition:

Course Book

Language Note:

English

Summary:

Soviet foreign policy changed dramatically in the 1980s. The shift, bitterly resisted by the country's foreign policy traditionalists, ultimately contributed to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War. In Changing Course, Sarah Mendelson demonstrates that interpretations that stress the impact of the international system, and particularly of U.S. foreign policy, or that focus on the role of ideas or politics alone, fail to explain the contingent process of change. Mendelson tells a story of internal battles where "misfit" ideas--ones that severely challenged the status quo--were turned into policies. She draws on firsthand interviews with those who ran Soviet foreign policy and the war in Afghanistan and on recently declassified material from Soviet archives to show that both ideas and political strategies were needed to make reform happen.Focusing on the Soviet decision to withdraw from Afghanistan, Mendelson details the strategies used by the Gorbachev coalition to shift the internal balance of power in favor of constituencies pushing new ideas--mutual security, for example--while undermining the power of old constituencies resistant to change. The interactive dynamic between ideas and politics that she identifies in the case of the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan is fundamental to understanding other shifts in Soviet foreign policy and the end of the Cold War. Her exclusive interviews with the foreign policy elite also offer a unique glimpse of the inner workings of the former Soviet power structure.Originally published in 1998.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Acknowledgments

Preface

Abbreviations

Chapter One. Introduction: How the New Thinkers Beat the Old Thinkers

Chapter Two. Explaining Change in Soviet Foreign Policy: Three Competing Arguments

Chapter Three. Escalation in Afghanistan, 1979-1980: A Case of Old Thinking

Chapter Four. The Groundwork for Change, 1982-1984: Old Thinkers Rule but New Thinkers Are Mobilized

Chapter Five. Changing the Political Agenda, 1985-1989: New Thinkers Gain Control of Political Resources

Chapter Six. Conclusion: The Importance of Ideas and Pohtics in Explaining Change

Index

About the Author

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 08. Jul 2019)

ISBN:

9780691632254

0691632251

9780691602806

0691602808

9781400864829

1400864828

OCLC:

884012785