Unarmed Forces : : The Transnational Movement to End the Cold War / / Matthew Evangelista.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Cornell University Press Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Evangelista, Matthew,
• MitwirkendeR: Katzenstein, Peter,
• Place / Publishing House: Ithaca, NY : : Cornell University Press, , [2018]; ©2002
• Year of Publication: 2018
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (416 p.) :; 3 tables, 14 halftones

Throughout the Cold War, people worldwide feared that the U.S. and Soviet governments could not prevent a nuclear showdown. Citizens from both East-bloc and Western countries, among them prominent scientists and physicians, formed networks to promote ideas and policies that would lessen this danger. Two of their organizations-the Pugwash movement and the International Physicians for the Prevention of Nuclear War-won Nobel Peace Prizes. Still, many observers believe that their influence was negligible and that the Reagan administration deserves sole credit for ending the Cold War. The first book to explore the impact these activists had on the Soviet side of the Iron Curtain, Unarmed Forces demonstrates the importance of their efforts on behalf of arms control and disarmament.Matthew Evangelista examines the work of transnational peace movements throughout the Khrushchev, Brezhnev, and Gorbachev eras and into the first years of Boris Yeltsin's leadership. Drawing on extensive research in Russian archives and on interviews with Russian and Western activists and policymakers, he investigates the sources of Soviet policy on nuclear testing, strategic defense, and conventional forces. Evangelista concludes that transnational actors at times played a crucial role in influencing Soviet policy-specifically in encouraging moderate as opposed to hard-line responses-for they supplied both information and ideas to that closed society. Evangelista's findings challenge widely accepted views about the peaceful resolution of the Cold War. By revealing the connection between a state's domestic structure and its susceptibility to the influence of transnational groups, Unarmed Forces will also stimulate thinking about the broader issue of how government policy is shaped.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Preface -- Part I. Transnational Relations and the Cold War -- 1. Taming the Bear -- 2. Structure, Opportunity, and Change -- Part II. The Khrushchev Era -- 3. The Birth of Transnationalism -- 4. "A Battle on Two Fronts": Khrushchev's Test Ban -- 5. "Why Keep Such an Army?" Khrushchev's Troop Reductions -- 6. "Hitting a Fly in Outer Space": Khrushchev and Missile Defenses -- Part III. The Brezhnev Era -- 7. Success, Stagnation, and Revival -- 8. "Nothing More to Talk About": Nuclear Testing under Brezhnev -- 9. "A Train without a Locomotive": Brezhnev's Army -- 10. "Not a Fool": Brezhnev and the ABM Treaty -- 11. The "Reckless Star Wars Scheme": A New Challenge -- Part IV. The Gorbachev Era -- 12. Transnational Renaissance -- 13. "Silence Reigned on Our Nuclear Test Ranges": Gorbachev and the Moratorium -- 14. "We Are Not Floating above Reality": Gorbachev's Revolution in European Security Policy -- 15. "If There Were No Nuclear Missiles": Gorbachev's Answer to Star Wars -- Part V. The Post-Soviet Era -- 16. The Paradox of State Strength -- 17. Power, Persuasion, and Norms -- Index