Soviet and Post-Soviet Studies Commons^™

An Alternative To Armageddon: O.P. Weyland And The Development Of Tactical Air Power, Paul Wells

LSU New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

Theorists and advocates of air power argued that aircraft, not ground forces, would become the dominant platform for victory in war. They promoted the concept of strategic bombing, using aircraft to bypass ground forces and directly attack a nation's industrial capacity to wage war, hoping to ensure quick victory and avoid a repeat of the prolonged slaughter in the trenches of WWI. In 1947, led by advocates of strategic bombing, the United States Air Force (USAF) became an independent and equal branch of the U.S. military. The USAF developed the Strategic Air Command (SAC) to meet the requirements of the …

Making A Victim: The Quest To Define Austria In A Cold War Context, Katherine E. White

The Cardinal Edge

When the Second World War concluded, the Allied Powers were left with the complicated question of how to deal with the territories that they had occupied on their march to Berlin. Of all the territories conquered by Germany under Nazi rule, Austria proved to be one of the most difficult and polarizing to define. It towed the line between victim and accomplice, having endorsed its own annexation to Germany in 1938. For ten years after the war’s end, the Allied Powers occupied Austria, locked in a stalemate over the country’s fate. This paper examines how the various occupying powers, in …

Fear, Memory, And Deterrence: Reassessing Nuclear Peace In The 21st Century, Nathan H. Schroeder

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This research investigates the paradox of nuclear peace theory: the idea that nuclear weapons, despite their destructive capacity, have contributed to a more stable global order. By tracing the historical development of nuclear arsenals and the strategic logic of deterrence, the project examines whether the post-1945 decline in large-scale wars between superpowers and wartime deaths can be attributed to the threat of mutual annihilation. It also explores the psychological and cultural consequences of this deterrence-based peace, including the normalization of fear and its potential link to desensitization toward violence in younger generations. From Cold War-era school drills to modern apocalyptic …

Reagan, Thatcher, And The Diplomacy Of Sdi, Tim Anglea

The Ozark Historical Review

This article utilizes new sources released through the Margaret Thatcher Foundation and The National Archives of the United Kingdom, which contain an extensive record of correspondence by the prime minister on most international issues. While the sources necessarily approach SDI from a British perspective, they also detail wider European opinion towards Reagan’s initiative. Both Thatcher and other NATO allies shared many of the same questions and concerns regarding SDI. How would SDI impact arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union? Would SDI lead to a decoupling of the United States from Europe? And, most importantly, would the adoption of SDI …

The Rise Of Mao: Chinese Civil War And The Role Of Sub-State Actors, 1924-1949, Jackson Trahant

Tenor of Our Times

Mao Zedong led one of the most successful peasant rebellions in human history, changing the global stage of politics forever. Analysis of the 30 year war between Mao’s CCP and the Nationalist Party regime, led by Chiang Kai-shek, reveals the vital role of the Chinese peasant class as a force for revolution. Through ideological pedagogy, Mao formed a highly loyal army that in turn transformed him into a premier political figure of the 20th century, both hated and revered. His story informs the modern field of comparative politics as to how intrastate conflicts rely on sub-state actors for their success.

The Czech Republic: From The Center Of Christendom To The Most Atheist Nation Of The 21st Century. Part 1. The Persecuted Church: The Clandestine Catholic Church (Ecclesia Silentii) In Czechoslovakia During Communism 1948-1991, Scott Vitkovic

Occasional Papers on Religion in Eastern Europe

This research examines the most important historical, political, economic, social, cultural, and religious factors before, during, and after the reign of Communism in Czechoslovakia from 1918 to 2021 and their effect on the extreme increase in atheism and decrease in Christianity, particularly Roman Catholicism, in the present-day Czech Republic. It devotes special attention to the role of the Clandestine Catholic Church (Ecclesia Silentii) and the changing policies of the Holy See vis-à-vis this Church, examining these policies' impact on the continuing decline of Roman Catholicism in the Czech Republic after the collapse of Communism. The article also deals with Pope …

Was Soft Power Used During The Cold War?, Drake C. Dewey

Capstone Showcase

On December 25, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics which resulted in the formal conclusion of the Cold War. The Cold War was an ideological battle between the United States and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics from the mid-1940s until 1991. I have decided to put the beginning date of the Cold War as March 5, 1946, while the end date is December 25, 1991. During the Cold War, there was a new form of power which was coined by Joseph Nye. Scholars have questioned the influence of soft versus hard …

A Roundtable For Victoria M. Grieve, Little Cold Warriors: American Childhood In The 1950s, Thomas Field Jr., Julia L. Mickenberg, Lori Clune, Mary Brennan, Donna Alvah, Victoria M. Grieve

Publications

Dr. Thomas Field introduces a roundtable discussion of Victoria M. Grieve's Little Cold Warriors: American Childhood in the 1950s, providing a synopsis of reviewer critiques before the reviewers expand on their views and the author responds.

The Economic Roots Of The Cold War: The Imf, Ito And Other Economic Issues In Post-War Soviet-American Relations, Kristina V. Minkova

Journal of Global Initiatives: Policy, Pedagogy, Perspective

In light of newly released archival resources, this article examines the traditional historiography of Soviet-American relations focusing on economic relations at the end of World War II.

One Man's Reaction To Nato Expansion, Jamie M. Putnam

International Relations Honors Papers

Using the policy of NATO expansion and the events of the Ukraine crisis, this paper examines President Vladimir Putin’s impact on Russian foreign policy and analyzes the extent to which his personality and personal interests have shaped Russia’s actions. In doing so, it seems that Russia as an actor on the international stage cannot be understood without considering Putin’s role in creating what Russia is today.

Heroes Of Berlin Wall Struggle, William D. Bowman

History Faculty Publications

When the Berlin Wall fell 25 years ago, on Nov. 9, 1989, symbolically signaling the end of the Cold War, it was no surprise that many credited President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev for bringing it down.

But the true heroes behind the fall of the Berlin Wall are those Eastern Europeans whose protests and political pressure started chipping away at the wall years before. East German citizens from a variety of political backgrounds and occupations risked their freedom in protests against communist policies and one-party rule in what they called the "peaceful revolution." [excerpt]

Foundation In The Field: The Ford Foundation New Delhi Office And The Construction Of Development Knowledge, 1951-1970, Nicole Sackley

History Faculty Publications

In recent years, historians have uncovered a good deal about the domestic production and circulation of development knowledge between US philanthropies and US universities. They have begun to trace as well the role of US foundations in the formation of transnational epistemic communities of experts that cohered around, and defined, developments such as population control, food production and economic planning initiatives.³ The voice of the foundation in these histories nevertheless remains largely that of the foundation presidents and senior officers in New York. This article, however, intends to shift our perspectives on the foundations and the construction of development …

The Soviet State As Imperial Scavenger: "Catch Up And Surpass" In The Transnational Socialist Bloc, 1950-1960, Austin Jersild

History Faculty Publications

THE BIGGEST PRIZE SOUGHT by the Soviet Union in its newly acquired postwar territory was the bomb itself—or initially the defense‐related industries, research specialists, and scientists in the German zone deemed useful to achieving this goal.1 The Soviets similarly made arrangements to benefit from uranium deposits in Jáchymov, Czechoslovakia, from the fall of 1945.2 The effort to develop the bomb, however, was merely the most visible expression of the Soviet state at work in what would eventually become the socialist bloc. The Soviet technical and managerial elite routinely engaged in a similar search for useful forms of industrial …

The Sino-Soviet Split: Cold War In The Communist World, Austin Jersild

History Faculty Publications

A reader of both Russian and Chinese, Lorenz M. Lüthi provides fascinating depth and detail to an unstable Sino-Soviet alliance shaped by strong and ambitious personalities, nationalist sensitivities, cultural misunderstandings, and the perhaps inevitable clash between two societies at very different stages in “socialist” history.