This book aims to bring together American and West German scholars in order to analyze U.S., German, and Soviet elite perceptions of East-West conflict. It attempts to assess the policy implications and political options for the West.

This book aims to bring together American and West German scholars in order to analyze U.S., German, and Soviet elite perceptions of East-West conflict. It attempts to assess the policy implications and political options for the West.

The Cold War was a unique international conflict partly because Josef Stalin sought socialist transformation of other countries rather than simply the traditional objectives. This intriguing book, based on recently accessible Soviet primary sources, is the first to explain the emergence of the Cold War and its development in Stalin's lifetime from the perspective of Soviet policy-making. The book pays particular attention to the often-neglected "societal" dimension of Soviet foreign policy as a crucial element of the genesis and development of the Cold War. It is also the first to put German postwar development into the context of Soviet Cold War policy. Stalin vainly tried to mobilize the Germans with slogans of national unity and then to discredit the West among the Germans by forcing the surrender of Berlin. Further attempts to prevail deadlocked him into a confrontation with the newly united Western powers. Comparing Stalin's internal statements with Soviet actions, Gerhard Wettig draws original conclusions about Stalin's meta-plans for the regions of Germany and Eastern Europe. This fascinating look at Soviet politics during the Cold War provides readers with new insights into Stalin's willingness to initiate crisis with the West while still avoiding military conflict.

This book, first published in 1983, examines the role that arms control has to play, alongside defence and deterrence, in stabilising East-West relations and reducing tensions during the Cold War. Arms control agreements were designed in the attempt to achieve parity between the nuclear forces of the superpowers, without making war more likely. A danger of confrontation between the USSR and the USA came from their involvement in Third World conflicts, and this arena is also discussed. The diplomatic approaches of the Soviet Union, the Third World and the West, and their aims in arms control, are also analysed.

Analyses superpower competition in the Third World, and contains assessments of the policy options. Demonstrates that competition in the Third World between the U.S. and the Soviet Union has many dimensions: military, political, ideological and economic. Illustrates that the policies of the Soviet Union and U.S. toward the Third World have gone through a considerable evolution during the four decades since the end of the Second World War.