This book is a historical reinterpretation of the Cold War in the broadest sense from the viewpoint of the late 1980s. Dukes contends that the rivalry of the USA and Soviet Union, like the Great Game between Britain and Imperial Russia, can be understood only by analysing their relationship over centuries. He adopts the explanatory model of French historian Fernand Braudel - the concepts of event, conjuncture and structure – and examines the super-power relationship in an historical context stretching back to the medieval period. He argues that the political and cultural gaps between Western and Soviet approaches at key events have stemmed from widely different experiences of these events, as well as from long-embedded traditions.

This new collection of original essays by leading academics explores major issues in Russia's relations with the wider world since the seventeenth century. The emphasis is not on Russian foreign policy per se, but on the different levels of interaction between Russia, its immediate neighbours, and the wider global community, including cultural, political and economic relations. The book has been produced in honour of the distinguished historian, Professor Paul Dukes.

Soviet Politics in Perspective is a new edition of Richard Sakwas successful textbook Soviet Politics: an introduction. Thoroughly revised and updated it builds on the previous editions comprehensive and accessible exploration of the Soviet system, from its rise in 1919 to its collapse in 1991. The book is divided into five parts, which focus on key aspects of Soviet politics. They are: * historical perspectives, beginning with the Tsarist regime on the eve of Revolution, the rise and development of Stalinism, through to the decline of the regime under Brezhnev and his successors and Gorbachev's attempts to revive the system * institutions of Government, such as the Communist Party, security apparatus, the military, the justice system, local government and participation * theoretical approaches to Soviet politics, including class and gender politics, the role of ideology and the shift from dissent to pluralism * key policy areas: the command economy and reform; nationality politics; and foreign and defence policy * an evaluation of Soviet rule, and reasons for its collapse. Providing key texts and bibliographies, this book offers the complete history and politics of the Soviet period in a single volume. It will be indispensable to students of Soviet and post-Soviet politics as well as the interested general reader.

This is an authoritative and comprehensive history of the Cold War and the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union that has dominated world politics in the second half of the twentieth century.

"American quarterly of Soviet and East European studies" (varies).