Cold War Competition Research Articles

The state of voluntariness? (Re)migration policy in Post-Fascist Germany between denazification, decolonization and development

ABSTRACT Between 1949 and 1980, voluntariness became a key element in West Germany’s post-fascist migration regime, intended to ethically frame the forced deportations of migrants. Voluntariness appeared in German migration legislation as a euphemistic term for forced removals. Politicians and lawyers emphasized the need to offer voluntary repatriation to those facing inevitable deportation. To avoid any association with Nazi deportations, both liberals and ‘former’ Nazis involved in Germany’s migration policy underscored the notion of voluntariness in what were essentially forced deportations. The paradigm of voluntariness in repatriation management was influenced by a specific German need to denazify deportations and migration practices, as well as by a global shift towards voluntariness associated with liberalization, decolonization, development, Cold War rivalries and the rise of liberal internationalism. Global practices and discourses of return migration both emerged from and helped shape this paradigm of voluntariness, as the liberalizing world sought to distance itself from its fascist legacy and align with emancipatory and progressive ideals, despite the ongoing deportation of migrants from the Global South. I argue that West Germany played a significant role in shaping and globalizing the concept of voluntary repatriation within this historical context, transforming it from a paradigm into a dispositive.

Hegemony by Adaptation: Decolonizing Ghana’s Construction Industry

Abstract This paper discusses competing visions of the decolonization of Ghana’s economy during the first decade of the country’s independence from Britain (1957–1966), and the agency and horizon of choice available to the Ghanaian decision-makers in charge of implementing these visions. It focuses on Ghana’s construction industry, both as an important part of the national economy and as a condition for Ghana’s broader social and economic development in the context of colonial-era path-dependencies and Cold War competition. By taking the vantage point of mid-level administrators and professionals, the paper shows how they negotiated British and Soviet technological offers of construction materials, machinery, and design. In response to Soviet claims about the adaptability of their construction resources to Ghana’s local conditions, the practice of adaptation became for Ghanaian architects and administrators an opportunity to reflect on the needs, means, and objectives of Ghana’s construction industry, and on broader visions of Ghana’s economic and social development. Beyond the specific focus on the construction industry, this paper conceptualizes the centrality of adaptation in enforcing technological hegemony during the period of decolonization, and discusses African agency beyond the registers of extraction and resistance that have dominated scholarship on the global Cold War.

Ideology in the Korean War

This study examines the persistent tensions between North and South Korea, two nations that share historical and cultural ties prior to their division following World War II. After Japan’s surrender on August 15, 1945, Korea was split into two spheres of influence: the Soviet Union took control of the North, while the United States oversaw the South, with the 38th parallel serving as the dividing line. This division led to stark ideological, social, and economic differences between the two countries, exacerbated by the Cold War rivalry. The Korean War became a larger proxy conflict, with North Korea receiving support from the Soviet Union and China, while South Korea was backed by the United States and its UN allies. The war involved various military strategies across land, sea, and air, adapting to the evolving battlefield conditions. This research uses a descriptive analysis and documentary method, relying on books, articles, and other sources to explore the ongoing conflict and the challenges of the peace process between the two Koreas. The study aims to illuminate the root causes of the conflict and the barriers to lasting peace, while emphasizing the substantial role of global powers like the United States and the Soviet Union in shaping the ideological and social dynamics of the Korean Peninsula

Causes, Impacts, and Historical Analysis of the War of Vietnam

The Vietnam War was one of the most dubious and compelling military conflicts of the twentieth century. This article aims to give a top-to-bottom examination of the causes, effects, and history of the conflict that sawthed in Vietnam from 1955 to 1975. Utilizing essential and optional sources, the creator investigates different parts of the contention, including its set of experiences. the specific situation, the explanations for the episode of the conflict, and the expansive effects that keep on affecting local and worldwide issues right up to the present day. The verifiable setting of the Vietnam War can be traced back to the pioneering time when Vietnam was under French frontier rule. The craving for autonomy and solidarity turned into the focal subject that molded Vietnam’s public character and brought about the different enemies of pilgrim developments. Following the First Indochina War, which saw Vietnam split along the 17th parallel, there were more wars, which eventually turned into the Second Indochina War. The main drivers of the Vietnam War were multi-layered and complex. One of the principal factors is the philosophical hole between the socialist North and the non-socialist South. The Cold War competition between the US and the Soviet Union likewise assumed a significant role, with America supporting the South Vietnamese government to forestall the spread of socialism in Southeast Asia. Additionally, regional dynamics and nationalism play a role in the region’s growing hostility. This segment talks about significant occasions and defining moments during the Vietnam War, including the Inlet of Tonkin occurrence, the Tet Hostile, and the Paris Truce. These occurrences had a significant impact on the course of the conflict and influenced public opinion worldwide as well as in the countries involved

‘The Russians are Coming!’ Entangled Peripheries and Cold War Competition in Motorcycle Speedway

Abstract In its heyday, motorcycle speedway packed stadiums on both sides of the Iron Curtain. Via archival research, oral history, and fieldwork in multiple states this essay argues that speedway is uniquely placed to complicate tired Cold War binaries. Regardless of prevailing political systems, it thrived in provincial settings, as tours, itinerant riders, and machinery ensured regular interactions between speedway’s ‘entangled peripheries’. When small-town Swedes and aspirant Soviets challenged the British Commonwealth’s on-track dominance, this sport born at the imperial margins thrust Muslim riders from the Russian step into the limelight, and Australasian world champions harnessed superior Czechoslovak engineering.

Vietnam War: A Study of History, Causes, and Impact

The Vietnam War was one of the most controversial and influential military conflicts of the 20th century. This journal article aims to provide an in-depth analysis of the history, causes, and impact of the war that raged in Vietnam from 1955 to 1975. Using primary and secondary sources, the author investigates various aspects of the conflict, including the historical context, the underlying reasons for the outbreak of the war, and far-reaching consequences that continue to shape regional and global affairs to this day. Cold War rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union also played an important role, with the US supporting the South Vietnamese government to prevent the spread of communism in Southeast Asia. Apart from that, the methodology used in this research is a descriptive qualitative method. This method is applied by reviewing various literature related to this research topic. Thus, the role of nationalism and regional dynamics contribute to the escalation of hostilities in the region. These events had significant implications for the trajectory of the conflict and shaped public opinion both in the countries involved and internationally.

A history of technical education in Ethiopia: The case of the Polytechnic Institute, 1963-2000

This research aims at exploring and analyzing the history of the Polytechnic Institute from its establishment in 1963 to its transformation as the Faculty of Engineering in 2000. The study is mainly based on the consultation of priceless archival documents kept in the record office of the former Polytechnic Institute (now Bahir Dar Institute of Technology). In addition, attempts have been made to substantiate archival sources by gathering oral evidence from pertinent people including the first graduates of the Polytechnic Institute. The information gathered from archival documents (letters, reports, graduation bulletins, newspapers, etc.) and interviews has been carefully examined, cross-checked, interpreted, and analyzed to reconstruct the history of the institute. The findings of the study show that the Polytechnic Institute was the result of the Cold War rivalry between the two superpowers, the United States and the former Soviet Union. When the U.S. government turned down his request for increased military assistance, Emperor Haile Selassie paid an official visit to Moscow in 1959. Among other things, the Soviet government offered financial assistance that led to the establishment of the Bahir Dar Polytechnic Institute in 1963. The Soviet government also supported the institute by assigning technical advisers and instructors, whose number grew substantially after the 1974 revolution. The ideological solidarity between the two countries brought more scholarship opportunities to the students and instructors of the Institute. In 2000, the union of the Polytechnic Institute and Bahir Dar Teachers College gave rise to the birth of Bahir University. In the last sixty years, the Institute has produced world-class technologists.

The Landing and Liberation: A Historiography of the Korean War's Operation Chromite, September 1950

A review of Operation Chromite’s basic history is necessary to fully understand the historiographical trends and available archival resources. To adequately capture the campaign’s origins, historical analysis must begin not in September 1950 but with U.S. leaders’ contradictory approach to security after World War II. On the one hand, the United States took a leading role in world security, forming numerous alliances and international institutions in the context of emerging Cold War rivalry. On the other hand, U.S. military forces atrophied after 1945. Imposition of defense budget ceilings and other efforts by the Harry S. Truman administration, abetted by a thrifty Congress, left a shell of a force in place. Postwar cuts left units undermanned and at low levels of readiness. The Marine Corps fought an especially difficult political battle to prove the value of Marine air support and a Marine expeditionary capability.

On the Cover: Showcasing China's On-the-Job Training in Rural Africa.

The cover of this issue of Technology and Culture illustrates how China implemented-and promoted-on-the-job training in Africa. The image shows a Tanzanian dentist practicing dentistry under the supervision of a Chinese doctor in rural Tanzania, probably in the 1970s. Despite the ineffectiveness of the on-the-job training model, the photograph attempts to project the success of the dental surgery techniques exchanged between China and Tanzania, using simple medical equipment rather than sophisticated medical knowledge. The rural setting reflects the ideological struggle of the Cold War era, when Chinese doctors and rural mobile clinics sought to save lives in the countryside, while doctors from other countries engaged in Cold War competition worked primarily in cities. This essay argues that images were essential propaganda tools during the Cold War and urges historians of technology to use images critically by considering the contexts that influenced their creation.

African Labour’s Cold War


 
 
 This article examines the conflict over “free” trade unionism within the Ghana Trades Union Congress (GTUC) during the 1950s and early 1960s. It demonstrates how labour leaders sought to anchor economic rights in ambitious development planning and extend their influence across the continent in the wake of decolonization. In contrast to colonial-era concepts of free trade unions as apolitical associations, anti- colonial and postcolonial leaders recognized the transformative political potential of labour organizing. On the basis of GTUC publications and the correspondence of its leadership with the International Conference of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) in Brussels, this article shows how Ghanaian labour leaders attempted to leave behind colonial-era dependencies while subordinating Cold War rivalries to what they per- ceived as the special, historically unique situation of newly decolonized countries. Ghanaian leaders eschewed existing models for international trade unionism, leading to a brief period of disaffiliation from the Western-oriented ICFTU as they attempted to chart their own path by mobilizing labour across the African continent. Ultimately, these attempts failed, and the forceful bid for a pan-African labour alliance under the Nkrumah government alienated many other African nations as leadership experienced increasing protest at home.
 
 

Kultura strategiczna USA podczas zimnej wojny i po jej zakończeniu

This text raises an issue of strategic culture. It uses the example of the works of the US federal administration on the official processing of the challenges connected with Cold War rivalry in the period of containment of Soviet influence, as well as under the new challenge from Putin’s Russia. It defines the term “strategic culture”, and provides theoretical orderings locating it among the important factors shaping the decision making of federal bodies on deterrence and key national security challenges. It also discusses institutional arrangements for conducting policies towards new challenges, such as weapons of mass destruction and terrorism, which require a change of approach from the social elite, followed by the adoption of modified procedural patterns in domestic and international relations.

Interactive Leader Psychology and the Ebb and Flow of Interstate Rivalry

AbstractA great deal of scholarship links leaders’ psychological traits to their monadic tendency to use force abroad, but virtually no work considers how the interaction of leadership psychology influences the systematic likelihood of dyadic interstate conflict. We develop and test several competing explanations of how the interactive conceptual complexity of leaders—a psychological trait that consistently predicts monadic conflict propensity—might affect the ebb and flow of conflict within rivalries. Our time-series analyses of the US–Soviet Cold War rivalry, utilizing the leadership trait analysis coding scheme, demonstrate that, in accordance with the monadic logic, increases in the interactive conceptual simplicity between US presidents and Soviet premiers predict a significantly higher incidence of militarized interstate dispute initiation and a greater volume of conflictual dyadic (COPDAB, conflict and peace data bank) behavior. At the same time, however, the least conflict-prone pairing is one in which a conceptually complex leader interacts with a conceptually simplistic counterpart. This suggests that the presence of even one complex leader can increase empathy and diminish the aggressive misperception and retaliatory “downward spirals” that haunt rivalries.

Negotiating conservation and competition: national parks and 'victory-over-communism' diplomacy in South Korea.

Focusing on South Korean biologists and their efforts to establish national parks in the 1960s and 1970s, I illuminate the ways in which they negotiated their relationship with the ecological diplomacy of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and the anti-communist and developmentalist diplomacy of the South Korean government. To justify their activities, these South Korean biologists emphasized the importance of nature conservation activities in the competition for international recognition and economic development with their northern counterparts. The national-park initiative was thus subsumed into the politics of this legitimacy competition between the two Koreas, or what I call 'victory-over-communism' diplomacy. The IUCN's influence over South Korea was limited to the extent that both the government and scientists recognized the diplomatic merit they could gain in the context of their Cold War competition and developmentalism. It is also shown how, during the short detente period of the two Koreas, South Korean biologists used victory-over-communism diplomacy to renew their government's attention to their activities. This Korean episode contributes to the wider perspective of decentralizing the Cold War history of environmental diplomacy in the free-world bloc by illustrating the importance of its entanglement with the Cold War politics surrounding Asian developmentalism.

In whose backyard? China and Latin America in the imperialist chain

This paper critically analyses the political economy of the US-China rivalry in Latin America, China’s penetration into the region since the early 2000s, and Washington’s response. It argues that a new form of Cold War rivalry is brewing in an increasingly multi-polar world: one that is shaping geopolitics, trade, and security arrangements, as well as potential conflicts in a ‘transitional’ process of ‘21st century imperialism’ for control and influence, where the US still dominates but where China is favourably placed. As Latin American leaders have welcomed ‘outsiders’ into America’s ‘backyard’, a consistent pattern of Chinese investment and construction has followed. While economic development and aid from China was secured, it was believed that greater regional integration and independence from US imperialism would also follow. The question remains whether fostering a relationship with China has meant greater independence from imperialism, or whether it has led merely to its regional transformation.

ENGLISH-REVISITING THE IMPLICATIONS OF PAKISTAN’S COLD WAR ALIGNMENT ON ITS ISLAMIC AND POLITICAL LANDSCAPE

This research venture attempts to revisit the repercussions of Pakistan’s alignment with the U.S. bloc during the reign of the Cold War against the spread of the former communist Soviet Union in the Asian region on its political landscape and Islamic identity. The study also seeks to explore the research gaps associated with Pakistan’s role as a key player in the interplay of the Cold War that changed its political dynamics and shaped religious identity. The findings of the study suggest that Pakistan’s role as a key player in the U.S. war against the spread of communism in the Asian region brought significant geopolitical and strategic changes coupled with shaping unprecedented religious and cultural identities. For instance, the emergence of religious extremism and hatred, sectarianism, terrorism, and militancy resulted from the refugee influx from Afghanistan caused by the Cold War rivalry between the United States and the former Soviet Union on Afghan soil. Finally, the paper fosters an understating of contemporary political and religious challenges to Pakistan by navigating the historical alignment of the country with the United States.

Introduction: the Cold War of labour migrants: opportunities, struggles and adaptations across the Iron Curtain and beyond

ABSTRACT This introduction to the special issue The Cold War of Labor Migrants: Opportunities, struggles and adaptations across the Iron Curtain and beyond seeks to bring forward the conversation between the history of the Cold War and migration studies. It is the result of a workshop convened by the Working Group ‘Labor Migration History’, of the European Labor History Network. It maps out the academic debate on international labor migration and it critically engages with its western-centric approach. It introduces the seven contributions which, from different geographic and thematic perspectives, reassess the importance of non-Western experiences in shaping the entanglement between international labor migration and the Cold War. Two lines of inquiry feature prominently in this special issue. The first is a reassessment of the relevance of the regulation of international migration as a political terrain on which the Cold War divide was both constructed and deconstructed by different institutional actors, which, at various levels, were empowered by the existence of Cold War rivalry. The second, is the agency of migrants and aims to explore the fluidity, opportunism and creativity in the ways that migrants themselves experienced state control because of the particular Cold War socio-economic and political context.

In the name of Asian solidarity: Sino–Japanese competition for technology diplomacy in Burma, 1955–1965

A decade after the 1955 Bandung Conference, China and Japan engaged in a competition for technological exports to Burma. 1 During this process, technocrats in Beijing and Tokyo mobilized non-governmental collaborators—local Chinese industrialists and Japanese businesses seeking overseas expansion—as proxies to maximize their technological output to Burma. The Burmese, on the other hand, used the competition between Beijing and Tokyo as a bargaining tool, and pressed the two regional powers to provide at Rangoon's request. The technical aid Burma received was also affected by its shifting visions for development. Factionalist struggles between 1958 and 1962 changed not only Burma's political landscape but also its leadership's mind-set regarding the economy: the nation moved away from aid-driven industrial modernization towards a self-reliant, agricultural economy based on limited foreign technologies. Consequently, the meaning of the term ‘technological aid’, though used throughout the decade, became flexible and indistinct, carrying vastly different connotations at different stages of the Burmese state-building process. In this way, Burma's experience as an aid-receiving country in Cold War Asia may speak to the flexible power dynamics between the aiding and the aided countries, and shed light on the diversified means through which states employed science and technology as diplomatic tools in Cold War competition.

Editor's Note

Editor's Note

Czechoslovak diplomatic dilemmas in regards to the Adolf Eichmann trial

This article aims to analyze the ambiguous diplomatic approach of Czechoslovakia towards the trial with Adolf Eichmann launched in Jerusalem in April 1961. Even though Eichmann was internationally seen as one of the unquestionable Holocaust perpetrators, the approach of Czechoslovak diplomacy towards his trial was not as supportive and cooperative as would normally be expected from a country severely affected by Nazi repression in the recent past. Due to the ongoing Cold War rivalries that put Czechoslovakia and Israel on opposite sides of the conflict, in the early 1960s, the bilateral relations of the two countries were strained and hostile. The disinclination of Czechoslovakia to cooperate with Israel on the preparations for the Eichmann trial by providing testimonies of his crimes, however, put Czechoslovakia into a thorny diplomatic position hence this reluctance could have been interpreted as an indirect backing of a Nazi criminal. Altogether, the situation escalated in an unprecedented diplomatic dilemma for Czechoslovak authorities.

US foreign policy elites and the great rejuvenation of the ideological China threat: The role of rhetoric and the ideologization of geopolitical threats.

Since 2018, US foreign policy elites have portrayed China as the gravest threat to their country. Why was China predominantly cast as an ideological threat, even though other discursive formulations, such as a geopolitical threat, were plausible and available? Existing major IR theories on threat perpcetions struggle to address these questions. In this article, we draw from rhetoric and public legitimation scholarship to argue that the mobilization of adjacent policy debates was key to mainstream the representation of China as an ideological threat. By mobilizing debates on Russia and the softpower andsharp power concepts, a minority view in US foreign policy with a longstanding ambition to get tough on China established a seemingly natural link between liberal internationalism and an ideologically threatening China. Liberal foreign policy elites who originally opposed a realpolitik view of China could now subsume a geopolitical threat into an ideological one reminiscent of US-Soviet Cold War rivalry. This constituted a necessary catalyst to align most foreign policy elites to understand China as the gravest threat to the United States, at a time when China's capabilities and behaviour, coupled with a deep sense of insecurity regarding America's place in the world, provided the necessary backdrop.