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Confidence-Building Measures (CBMs) - often seen as the fastest growing sector on the post-Cold War diplomatic agenda - are increasingly viewed by the international community as useful instruments for addressing a range of security and diplomatic issues. Rethinking Confidence-Building Measures warns against an uncritical pursuit of CBMs, arguing that the idea has been oversold. The author asserts that obstacles to meaningful agreements are much more important than usually acknowledged, and the political and military ramifications have been generally ignored. She concludes that the same effort, painstaking negotiation, and possibilities for failure are inherent in CBMs as in the wide array of other potential solutions for managing interstate security relations, but with far fewer substantial results.
At a time when greater transparency is needed, this book advances a novel explanation of America's efforts to advance greater transparency in international relations. Marquardt argues that American statesmen have long sought to secure an American-dominated international system to encourage states to be more open and forthcoming about their internal affairs. Yet the United States routinely uses its calls for military transparency in particular as a policy instrument to discipline its rivals and therefore paradoxically contributes to greater tension in international relations. In contrast to conventional thinking about transparency in relation to overcoming power politics and promoting international cooperation, this book explores the relationship between America's power and international security competition. Though analytically distinct, openness and transparency have served the same strategic goal; ensuring America's position of preponderance in the international system.
This publication shows that the Eastern Mediterranean, having been transformed from a region of secondary importance during the Cold War to one of greater importance for the western interests in the post-Cold War era, is in a state of flux. Despite sporadic periods of rapprochement, tensions between Greece and Turkey still exist. Therefore, one must question the grounds behind the lack of normal relations that exist between these two NATO members and its effects on the NATO organisation as a whole. Hence, this volume has two purposes first, to examine Greek and Turkish foreign, security and defence policies during and after the post-Cold War period and second, to investigate why these policies have been formulated.
The definitive account of the historic diplomatic agreement that provided a blueprint for ending the Cold War The Helsinki Final Act was a watershed of the Cold War. Signed by thirty-five European and North American leaders at a summit in Finland in the summer of 1975, the document presented a vision for peace based on common principles and cooperation across the Iron Curtain. The Final Act is the first in-depth history of the diplomatic saga that produced this important agreement. This gripping book explains the Final Act's emergence from the parallel crises of the Soviet bloc and the West during the 1960s and the conflicting strategies that animated the negotiations. Drawing on research in eight countries and multiple languages, The Final Act shows how Helsinki provided a blueprint for ending the Cold War and building a new international order.
The focus of arms control is changing. It now deals with issues affecting all nations and not just the super powers. A new framework for approaching non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and arms control could focus on a two-fold policy initiative. The first policy would be a new strategic "triad" built around conventional capability including rapidly deployable forces, regional ballistic missile defense, and long-range precision-strike capability. The second policy would employ an information strategy using the current diplomatic initiatives that appear to be the most productive, or unilateral and multilateral export controls, military assistance in the form of infrastructure, and confidence building measures. Continued success in arms control requires abandoning Cold War policies. Emerging policies will need to appreciate different world views. Good intelligence will be a key factor in the success of any policy orientation and its implementation. The focus needs to change from arms control involving the superpowers to arms control involving everyone.
This Book Is A Most Timely And Welcome Addition To The Growing Body Of Literature On Cbms In South Asia. It Provides Reasons For Hope As There Are Many Reasons To Be Dispirited About The Absence Of Proper Confidence Building Measures In South Asia.
This volume provides the first geographically and thematically comprehensive study of the evolution and current state of the national security and defence policies, strategies, doctrines, capabilities, and military operations, as well as the alliances and security partnerships, of European armed forces.
Relations between mainland China and Taiwan have improved markedly in recent years, giving rise to the key question, How far can the current rapprochement go? This book focuses on how mainland China-Taiwan relations are likely to develop in future. It considers economic relations, including the many recent trade agreements, the political sphere, where there has been little progress, the impact of increasing personal, social contacts, and the role of international actors, especially the United States. The book concludes by arguing that the present "circulatory dialogue" is likely to continue, without a transformative breakthrough.
This volume appears at a time when the prospects for banishing the threat of nuclear annihilation are brighter than at any time since the first atomic device exploded over the desert at Alamogordo. The last few years have seen an ex traordinary change in the climate of East-West relations. The programme of political and economic reform which President Gorbachev initiated in the Soviet Union and which is now spreading throughout most of Eastern Europe has been parallelled by serious efforts to reach agreement on measures for conventional and nuclear disarmament. This has led to new hope that international peace and security can at last be built upon the firm foundation of justice, respect for in ternational law and a determination to approach problems in a spirit of genuine co-operation rather than one of distrust and confrontation. This new climate encourages us in the belief that the obvious common sense of preventing the further spread of nuclear weapons will come to be shared by all nations. At the same time, we have to recognize two very disturbing facts, which imply that there can be no slackening of our efforts to strengthen the non-proliferation regime.
While the trend toward greater transparency will bring many benefits, Kristin M. Lord argues that predictions that it will lead inevitably to peace, understanding, and democracy are wrong. The conventional view is of authoritarian governments losing control over information thanks to technology, the media, and international organizations, but there is a darker side, one in which some of the same forces spread hatred, conflict, and lies. In this book, Lord discusses the complex implications of growing transparency, paying particular attention to the circumstances under which transparency's effects are negative. Case studies of the 1994 genocide in Rwanda and the government of Singapore's successful control of information are included.