Cold War Research Articles

Diplomatic Efforts of the Soviet Union in Seeking a Path to Conflict Resolution and Organizing the Geneva Conference (1954) – An Approach Through the Notes of the Soviet Delegation

The 1954 Geneva Conference was one of the most notable international conferences during the Cold War, addressing the end of war and restoration of peace in three Indochina countries and the Korean Peninsula. Major powers, including the United Kingdom, France, the United States, the Soviet Union, and China, represented the two blocs of socialism and capitalism, and played significant roles in this conference. The Soviet Union, as a major power and representative of the Warsaw Pact, was pivotal in balancing the power between the two international superpowers at the time (the Soviet Union and the United States). This paper presents the Soviet Union's diplomatic efforts in seeking ways to resolve conflicts in Indochina and the Korean Peninsula. From the notes of Soviet diplomats, both secret and public meetings of foreign ministers and embassies reflect the challenging path to holding the conference according to the principles of an international peace conference. The Soviet Union, in its role, consistently acted as a conference designer, crafting a front for a known "battle" full of challenges.

Changes in the Inter-Korean Policy of the DPRK and the ROK and Prospects for the Development of the Situation on the Peninsula

At the December plenum of the Central Committee of the WPC in 2023 and the January session of the National Assembly of the DPRK in 2024. North Korea has radically changed inter-Korean policy, abandoning the course of "unification of the country." The authorities have disbanded relevant structures and intend to "completely remove from the national history of our Republic the very concept of "unification", "reconciliation" and "compatriots". According to Kim Jong-un, the DPRK and the Republic of Korea have finally become "hostile states" for each other, their relations are no longer determined by belonging to the same people, so the peaceful unification of the Korean peninsula is no longer considered possible. This course testifies to the recognition by the country's leadership of objective reality and does not lead to an increase in the probability of an inter-Korean conflict initiated by Pyongyang. This change of course was largely the result of the processes in the south of the peninsula, where the government of Yoon Seok-Yeol, on the contrary, strengthens the rhetoric of "achieving peace through force". The author considers President Yoon's speech on March 1, 2024, formally dedicated to the 105th anniversary of the March 1, 1919 movement to be a sign of the new course. This speech can be considered as a program of a new inter-Korean policy aimed at eliminating the DPRK by the international community. The changed relations between Seoul and Pyongyang should be perceived as a consequence of changes in the world order and the global security architecture, as the concepts that do not meet the new reality are revised or canceled. At the same time, Russia may be satisfied with the presence of a cold war on the peninsula, if it does not turn into a hot one, as well as with the further rapprochement between Moscow and Pyongyang, united by a common threat.

Reconceptualising burdens – NATO centres of excellence: club goods, informal institutions, and partner contributions

ABSTRACT Research on NATO burden sharing comprises dozens of works. Since the end of the cold war, NATO adapted, enlarged, and institutionally complexified its mandates and area of operations. Yet, burden sharing research rarely accounts for such aspects given the political and scholarly focus on NATO’s target of 2% of GDP on military spending since the 2000s. This research merges rational institutionalism with collective action models on club goods production to study NATO Centres of Excellence. These 30 institutions are externally funded, independently run, and address the collective strategic problems associated with Alliance Transformation using informal arrangements, the Memorandum of Understanding. The contents of those agreements are compared using rational institutional design theory. This article offers original data reconceptualising the NATO burdens partners undertake beyond military expenditures using COE participation and hosting while offering a framework for a future examination of how the COE institutional agreements manage strategic problems (i.e. enforcement, allocation, uncertainty, etc.) with expanded data.

Of course people can reject democracy: psychological perspectives

Concerns have been expressed about a worldwide retreat from liberal democracy and a turn toward more authoritarian forms of government. Along with that concern has come surprise: when the cold war ended, it was widely believed that a new historical era was dawning during which alternatives to Western liberalism would wither away. Influential psychological theories also assume that freedom and autonomy are powerful human needs—needs that are thwarted by dictatorships. However, a number of theoretical perspectives and programs of research in psychology lead to the conclusion that in certain circumstances, turns toward authoritarian forms of government and restrictive societies are not only explicable, but also predictable. Fromm's analysis of why people might want to escape from freedom, Baumeister's work on escape-from-self mechanisms, and Schwartz's review of the literature on choice overload all provide ways of understanding why in turbulent times, members of free countries might intentionally seek out—and perhaps even ecstatically embrace—authoritarian forms of government.

Saudi Arabias New Development Path from the Perspective of Global Swing Country in the Context of Multi-polarization

After the end of the Cold War, the world pattern gradually changed from the bipolar pattern of the United States and the Soviet Union to multi-polarization. In this context, the United States, Russia, China, the European Union, the League of Arab States, and other poles have a greater influence on the change of the world situation, and the Russia-Ukraine war, the relations between the United States and China, the oil crisis, and other factors are constructing international relations. The American think tank defines some countries with an international voice but different preferences for cooperation as global swing countries and expands the original four countries (India, Indonesia, Brazil, Turkey) to six countries (adding Saudi Arabia and South Africa). These are also countries that the Western world, led by the United States, is trying to win over. This paper focuses on the development of Saudi Arabia after the implementation of the new policy in the context of multi-polarity and the reasons for the United States to regain the concept of global swing state. The main research method is literature analysis, and the data and reports obtained from the official website are combined on the basis of scholars research. It can be seen that the new policies represented by the 2030 vision introduced by Saudi Arabia since Salman came to power meet the development needs of Saudi Arabia and have achieved certain results. After a period of flat relations between the United States and Saudi Arabia, the United States has attached great importance to it. The reason is that national interests determine international relations.

“A Spy Thriller Outdoes Fiction”: Popular Culture and the 1954 Petrov Affair

ABSTRACT Scholars are increasingly aware of the ways in which popular culture, particularly spy fiction and film, mediates public understanding of the clandestine world of espionage and intelligence. This article uses the 1954 Petrov Affair as a case study to argue that spy fiction and representations of espionage performed a mediating and framing process for the Australian public during the early Cold War. The events surrounding the defection of Soviet embassy Third Secretary Vladimir Petrov and his wife, Evdokia, to Australia in April 1954 were shocking and unprecedented; with little experience of the extraordinary events beyond the thrilling espionage narratives of popular culture, the Australian media began to frame the event using the familiar formula of spy fiction. By making the “story” of the Petrov Affair a recognisable narrative, rendering the events understandable and the mysteries decipherable, the media transformed Australia’s unsettling involvement in the world of international espionage into entertainment.

Modern Diplomacy and the Changing Nature of International Politics in the 21st Century

International politics have become more complex since the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s, and consequently, it confuses traditional diplomats.[i] This intricacy is because the post-Cold War international era requires diplomacy to move from being foremost about high politics such as security, military and geopolitical issues to incorporating a wider and growing scope of issues outside of a state’s national borders like migration, gender, global warming, desertification and diseases. Not only are these novel policy themes an indication of how diplomacy’s agenda is growing, but they also indicate that an increasing number of participating stakeholders must be included in contemporary diplomatic practice.[ii] To further scrutinise the phenomena driving change and influencing modern diplomacy, the research utilises specific and relevant international political issues such as post-Cold War international politics, the hegemonic decline of the US, the rise of China, the problems in the Middle East, nuclear disarmament, climate change, Globalisation, the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR), the COVID-19 pandemic and diplomatic inflation. 1) Haynes 2011, 5-6, 8; Stern 2015; Spies 2019a, 42-43. [ii]) Haynes 2011, 8; Sharp 1999, 33; Spies 2019a, 42-43.

The art, science and technology studies movement: An essay review.

This is a review essay based primarily on the 2021 Routledge Handbook of Art, Science, and Technology Studies, edited by Hannah Star Rogers, Megan K. Halpern, Dehlia Hannah, and Kathryn de Ridder-Vignone. It focuses particularly on the use of art for public engagement with science and technology and it also draws upon the following books: Dialogues Between Artistic Research and Science and Technology Studies (2023), edited by Henk Borgdorff, Peter Peters, and Trevor Pinch, Making Art Work: How Cold War Engineers and Artists Forged a New Creative Culture (2020) by Patrick McCray, and Art, Science, and the Politics of Knowledge (2022), by Hannah Star Rogers.

Review of Nicaragua must survive. Sandinista revolutionary diplomacy in the Global Cold War

Review of Nicaragua must survive. Sandinista revolutionary diplomacy in the Global Cold War

Outside GHQ: the union democratization movement in occupied Japan 1947–1948

The Japanese people played a much more important role in shaping events during the Allied Occupation of Japan (1945-1952) than is often recognized. This article examines the movement for democratization of the labor unions in order to demonstrate the extent to which the Japanese shaped their own destiny. Domestic politics is often overlooked due to an emphasis on the start of the Cold War in this period. Indeed, US policy is usually given the predominant role in narratives of the period and is blamed for the decline of mass movements such as the labor movement but an examination of the evidence for Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers (SCAP) involvement in the period reveals that the Occupation authorities, especially those in the General Headquarters (GHQ) of SCAP, played a much smaller role than has been alleged.

In the Service of the Eastern Bloc: Czechoslovak Intelligence and the Cyprus Conflict 1974–1989

ABSTRACT Even after the division of the island in 1974, the ‘Cyprus Issue’ remained a significant determinant in the relations between Greece and Turkey. In the context of the ongoing Cold War, the Eastern Bloc sought to exploit this situation, aiming to undermine the cohesion of NATO’s southeastern wing. The primary objective of this study is to assess how one of the socialist states, Czechoslovakia, attempted to influence the Cyprus conflict between 1974 and 1989 through its foreign intelligence services. The study illustrates this through the example of the Czechoslovak residency in Nicosia, showcasing Czechoslovakia’s intelligence methods in recruiting foreign collaborators, acquiring information, and conducting intelligence operations in one of the world’s most geopolitically exposed regions.

Marginal imprints: Provincial print culture and the politics of Thai literary history during the Cold War

This article considers the significance of provincial print culture in challenging and expanding Thai literary history. Focusing on Siritham Publishing House in Northeast Thailand or Isan as a case study, the article examines how provincial print culture shaped the contested landscape of literary production and reception during the Cold War, when the category of regional literature emerged under the pretext of national integration. Drawing on the framework of publishing studies as well as existing scholarship on print culture in Thailand, it is argued that the literary corpus of Siritham’s publisher, Preecha Phinthong, helps shift scholarly attention away from a conventional literary history that tends to focus on the Bangkok-centric notion of Thainess. Instead, it encourages a more nuanced exploration of the processes of literary standardization and canon formation. Together with a historical examination of Siritham’s establishment, a close analysis of paratextual components of Preecha Phinthong’s publications and unpublished manuscripts challenges the rigid understanding of Isan regional identity in academic discourse and state policy during the Cold War. Specifically, the articulation of regional literary identity in Preecha Phinthong’s archive often involves a transnational relationship between Thailand and Laos that extends beyond the confines of Thai nationalism. Moreover, these paratexts constitute a space through which provincial publishers create their own interpretive frameworks for assessing the historical, linguistic, and aesthetic significance of regional literature, complicating the academic discourse of literary standardization. In addition to this counter-hegemonic vision, provincial print culture offers a more dynamic understanding of regional literature. The emergence of Siritham Publishing House coincided with the rise of Lao nationalism, during which the popularization of Lao literature via print technology traversed the Mekong River. In this context, Isan literary history can be viewed as the result of the interplay between Thai and Lao nationalism, characterized by contestation, negotiation, and mutual construction.

African Socialism and Secular State Formation

Abstract In order to trace pathways of secularisation and secularity in Africa this paper highlights a particular movement that carried great ideological weight at the time of most countries’ independence in the 1950s and 60s, namely African socialism. The development toward state secularism was structurally very similar throughout the continent independently of whether political leaders opted for the ‘West’ or the ‘East’ in the cold war. However, in opposition to Soviet ideology, African Socialism was famously antiatheist. With the wish to fend off Marxist atheism as a supposedly necessary aspect of socialism, ideologues in African socialism were among the few politicians in Africa even to address the place of religion in a secular state at all. The roots of African socialism can be traced to US-American Pan-Africanism as well as the interconnected colonial opposition movement grounded in Marxist anti-imperialism. Another argument focusses on the education of some prominent state leaders, such as Nyerere, Nkrumah, Touré and Senghor, to explain the importance of Christian mission schools and Islamic madrasahs as points of access to social, intellectual, and institutional participation in global anti-colonial movements. In the framework of one-party politics, state leaders called on (Pan-)African traditions, but ‘de-mystified’ them (Touré) in order to enhance African Socialism ‘as belief’ (Nyerere). In conclusion it is argued that state secularism in Africa at the time of independence, as demonstrated most visibly in African Socialism, is more about suppressing and/or balancing the traditional powers of religious leaders than about a fundamental critique of a religious way of life. In turn, the implicit association of socialism and Marxism with atheism needs further scrutiny in a global perspective.

Explanatory Approaches in Literature on Brazilian Communism During the Cold War

Explanatory Approaches in Literature on Brazilian Communism During the Cold War

Central European strategies in the new Cold War: between balancing and bandwagoning

This article argues that the security of Central Europe – defined as stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black See–is based first and foremost on the viability and engagement of the Western alliance, understood as NATO and the European Union. The security and defense policies in the region are designed in relation to NATO and bilateral relations with the United States, with limited attempts to achieve some degree of self-sufficiency. Therefore, to understand the security of Central Europe and its individual nations, it is essential to understand their attitudes and fears related to alliances as well as their perceptions of Russia’s intentions. It is posited here that the concept that can best explain the behavior of the nations of the region, allowing also for forecasting future behavior, is the balance of threat theory, as put forward by Stephen Walt. According to the theory, the nations facing threat chose to either balance the threatening power by joining forces with other actors and forming alliances or joining in with their predator, which constitutes a bandwagoning behavior. Historically, especially during the interwar period, these strategies have been employed by Central European nations. Today, the security environment is arguably very different– we have NATO, EU, and American engagement in the region. However, the international environment has deteriorated recently, especially since the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Arguably, Central European states have responded by falling, to some extent, into patterns of behavior familiar from the past, with some clinging to closer relations with their external patron (the United States) and some hedging their bets and opting for relative neutrality or even closer relations with Russia. The article argues that four factors determine states’ behavior vis-à-vis the Russian threat: geography, history, predator intentions, and the perception of allied reliability.

Aspects of Utilization of Psychotherapy in Germany in Times of the GDR and Later

Objective The aim of the study was to examine real differences in the use of psychotherapy in the New Federal States during the GDR era and today. In addition, differences according to the willingness seeking psychotherapy as well as barriers in opinions and contact to the mentally ill between people from the New Federal States, the Old Federal States and people who moved from the New Federal States to the Old Federal States (internal migrants) should be recorded, taking into account generational effects (experience of the Cold War - birth before / after January 1st, 1980). Methods To investigate these questions, the data from a representative survey in the New Federal States of N=2729 people as well as the data from a second online based survey of people from the New and Old Federal States as well as internal migrants with a total of N=4789 participants were evaluated.Results There was a prevalence of 1% for the use of psychotherapy during the GDR era. Overall, the prevalence of therapy experiences among people who experienced the GDR and were born before January 1st in 1980 was almost 13%. They also reported greater willingness seeking help for mental suffering since the end of the Cold War. The prevalence among younger people was about 12%. In the second survey, there were significant differences, among the older respondents. East Germans today and even during the GDR era were less willing to seek psychotherapy for mental suffering, they also have less contact to mentally ill people. Differences according to desires for distance from mentally ill people, self stigmatization in the presence of a mental illness and discrimination against mentally ill people emerged between East Germans, West Germans and internal migrants depending on generational affiliation.Discussion Barriers that prevent the use of psychotherapy should be taken into account on a generational and socialization specific basis. Socialization as a relevant factor might explain a lack of willingness to utilize psychotherapy amongst people that experienced the GDR era and still live in the new Federal States.

Making “Enemies”: Industry‐State Subterfuge and US Fair Trade Practices Towards Non‐Market Economies Since 1960

AbstractStudies on US “non‐market economy” (NME) antidumping (AD) policy frame its origins as either an ideological relic of the Cold War or as a case of regulatory capture informed by strategic filing patterns. While these insights are invaluable, they do not address the underlying social processes which inform the creation of economic concepts in the first instance. NME policy evolved out of the legal‐discursive tactics employed by the US steel industry hoping to receive relief from imports, and a US state which had to simultaneously provide a form of protection to the steel industry and maintain an international commitment to free trade. Steel and the state used legal subterfuge to achieve these goals. Accordingly, NME policy developed from the institutional struggle between two stakeholders in a strategic action field.

Unveiling the Unspoken and Invisible: Analyzing Artistic Responses to Radiophobia

Abstract The persistent nuclear threat continues to loom large, particularly in the contemporary landscape shaped by the ongoing Russian-Ukrainian war, often referred to as the Second Cold War. This conflict has drawn global attention and triggered an upsurge in nuclear discourse within the media, leading to a resurgence of radiophobia. This article aims to introduce the works of several artists who have undertaken the challenging task of rendering visible the imperceptible, ensuring that the nuclear threat and the repercussions of radiation are not relegated to oblivion.

The Great Decoupling: China, America and the Struggle for Technological Supremacy

In 12 substantive chapters, the author provides a comprehensive diagnosis of the state of play of the relationship between China and the US, up to the Trump-Xi period. The book’s thesis is that the two countries, the largest in the world across a number of measures (most importantly economic and military) are headed for an inevitable divergence, fuelled by misunderstanding, misalignment, and competing ambitions. This, of course, is nothing new and has been the subject of many academic and journalistic commentaries. But where Inkster stands out is in his focus on technology, an artefact important to every civilisation, and one which becomes a motivation and a weapon for integration or divergence. The book’s title gives a clue as to which camp Inkster falls within. This is no mere new cold war, he argues (though much of his argument fits squarely with much of that burgeoning and increasingly attention-worthy literature). That analogy misses a lot that is different in the US-PRC formation compared to its US-USSR example. It is more akin to the UK-German pre-WWI and US-Japan pre-Pearl Harbour situations; add to that the fuel of the narrative of the century of humiliation, authoritarian rule, and ingenuity and you have a highly motivated government and society in China.

Remembering the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait: Anniversary journalism’s role in collective memory and the State’s pursuit of ontological security

Seeking to broaden collective memory research beyond major nations and high-profile events (e.g., the Cold War and September 11), this study explores how Kuwaiti newspapers memorialized Saddam Hussein’s August 2, 1990, invasion of Kuwait. By tracing the evolution of commemorative narratives over three decades and observing how they resonate with the state’s political context, the role of the Kuwaiti press in shaping collective memory is shown. Additionally, given the shifts in Kuwait’s foreign policy—from initial animosity toward Iraq to a strategic partnership—prompted by leadership changes and the 2003 US–Iraq War, this study examines how commemorations reflected and solidified Kuwait’s evolving identity. In this context, the study evaluates the role of journalists as active participants in the state’s continuous pursuit of ontological security, which focuses on establishing a stable and recognized national identity alongside physical security.