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Why have some former enemy countries established durable peace while others remain mired in animosity? When and how does historical memory matter in post-conflict interstate relations? Focusing on two case studies, Yinan He argues that the key to interstate reconciliation is the harmonization of national memories. Conversely, memory divergence resulting from national mythmaking harms long-term prospects for reconciliation. After WWII, Sino-Japanese and West German-Polish relations were both antagonized by the Cold War structure, and pernicious myths prevailed in national collective memory. In the 1970s, China and Japan brushed aside historical legacy for immediate diplomatic normalization. But the progress of reconciliation was soon impeded from the 1980s by elite mythmaking practices that stressed historical animosities. Conversely, from the 1970s West Germany and Poland began to de-mythify war history and narrowed their memory gap through restitution measures and textbook cooperation, paving the way for significant progress toward reconciliation after the Cold War.
As a new decade begins the popular demand for change has meant that the social and political fabric of the the Eastern Bloc countries has been irrevocably altered. This book offers a comprehensive analysis of the key political, economic and social areas of East German society, such as the military and the church, areas which will intrinsically involved with the movement for change.
This is the first book to document, analyze, and interpret the history of the Warsaw Pact based on the archives of the alliance itself. As suggested by the title, the Soviet bloc military machine that held the West in awe for most of the Cold War does not appear from the inside as formidable as outsiders often believed, nor were its strengths and weaknesses the same at different times in its surprisingly long history, extending for almost half a century.
Discusses one of the major currents leading to the fall of communism. Falk examines the intellectual dissident movements in Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary from the late 1960s through to 1989. In spite of its historic significance, no other comprehensive survey has appeared on the subject. In addition to the huge list of written sources from samizdat works to recent essays, Falks sources include interviews with many personalities of those events as well as videos and films (including Oscar winners).
Examines the nature of international economic leadership since the seventeenth century.
The rise of the Polish army elite had a profound effect on the Communist Party. Many current changes stem from the tougher attitudes the Polish military under Jarulzelski took toward Solidarity. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
The monumental events that have hastened the collapse of communism in Europe have inevitably raised major concerns about the future of Communist regimes and systems in Asia. What are the prospects for reform there? What do the changes in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union signify for Asia. What effect would the decline of communism in Asia have on superpower relations and relations with non-Communist Asian countries? This volume examines these and other related questions, and includes leading scholars on Chinese, Japanese, and Korean affairs, as well as contributions by selected foreign specialists who provide their perspectives and analyses. The first part offers commentary on the nature of political changes in the former Communist bloc and their implications for selected Asian countries. Essays in the second part assess the likely impact of political developments on China, North and South Korea, Japan, and Taiwan, and on Japanese-Soviet relations and U.S.-Japanese economic and security relations. Young C. Kim and Gaston J. Sigur
Most of the works on the crises of the 1930s and especially the Munich Agreement in 1938 were written when it was virtually impossible to gain access to the relevant archive collections on both sides of the Iron Curtain. This text studies the Czechoslovak-German crisis and its impact from previously neglected perspectives and celebrates the post-Cold War openness by bringing in new evidence from hitherto inaccessible archives.
Can foreign invaders successfully exploit industrial economies? DOES CONQUEST PAY? demonstrates that expansion can, in fact, provide rewards to aggressor nations and suggests that the international system is more war-prone than many optimists claim.