Cold wars and proxy conflicts Books
Aspekt B.V., Uitgeverij Soviet Manipulation of Religious Circles ,
Book SynopsisThe term religious circles was coined by the World Peace Council (WPC), an organisation that during the Cold War was linked to the propaganda apparatus of the Artheist Communist of the Soviet Union (CPSU). In declassified reports Western intelligence services described the WPC as a Communist Party front organisation. The communists of the former Soviet Union are usually referred to as the Soviets. The Moscow-oriented communist also availed themselves of the Christian Peace Conference (CPC), another important communist front organisation which sought to manipulate Christian churches and the World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva. The CPC was dominated by the Soviet controlled Russian Orthodox Church which became a member of the WCC in 1961. A supportive role was played by the former KGB, the Soviet intelligence and security service during the Cold War. Through the CPC and the Russian Orthodox Church the Soviets manipulated the debate in ecumenical circles and the peace movement. Soviet agents helped to draft policy statements on international affairs at WCC Central Committee meetings. These KGB agents were later identified by KGB defector Vasili Mitrokhin. They were Aleksei Buyewsky (agent Kuznetsov) and metropolitan Nikodim (agent Adamant). Nikodim became one of the WCCs six presidents in 1975. I identified Buyevsky as a possible KGB agent in 1977.
£10.35
Central European University Press Under the Radar: Tracking Western Radio Listeners
Book SynopsisWestern democracy is currently under attack by a resurgent Russia, weaponizing new technologies and social media. How to respond? During the Cold War, the West fought off similar Soviet propaganda assaults with shortwave radio broadcasts. Founded in 1949, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty broadcast uncensored information to the Soviet republics in their own languages. About one-third of Soviet urban adults listened to Western radio. The broadcasts played a key role in ending the Cold War and eroding the communist empire. R. Eugene Parta was for many years the director of Soviet Area Audience Research at RFE/RL, charged among others with gathering listener feedback. In this book he relates a remarkable Cold War operation to assess the impact of Western radio broadcasts on Soviet listeners by using a novel survey research approach. Given the impossibility of interviewing Soviet citizens in their own country, it pioneered audacious interview methods in order to fly under the radar and talk to Soviets traveling abroad, ultimately creating a database of 51,000 interviews which offered unparalleled insights into the media habits and mindset of the Soviet public. By recounting how the “impossible” mission was carried out, Under the Radar also shows how the lessons of the past can help counter the threat from a once and current adversary.Trade Review"Most of Radio Free Europe’s research efforts were geared toward learning how to build listener trust and how to counter propaganda. Today, there is no centralized research organization that combines quantitative media surveys with analytical research into the target country’s economic, political, and sociocultural life. Parta’s final peroration is a call for the creation of such an institution: one that could provide insights into digital audiences and offer counternarratives, especially in light of contemporary Russian propaganda and its role in fueling the war in Ukraine." https://muse.jhu.edu/article/911038 -- Ana Cohle * Technology and Culture *"Stylishly written and fun to read, Parta’s book is ultimately more about people than policies or data. He describes his fellow employees and associates at the various contracting firms who conducted the actual interviews that provided raw data for statistical analyses. He elucidates how they worked and sometimes how they played, which gives the reader a sense of the personalities behind Cold War radio. These were not policy-formulating or policyimplementing automatons but real people with real virtues and failings." https://direct.mit.edu/jcws/article-abstract/25/4/261/118956/Cold-War-Radio-The-Russian-Broadcasts-of-the-Voice?redirectedFrom=fulltext -- Anatol Shmelev * Journal of Cold War Studies *Table of ContentsAcknowledgements Foreword Introduction Prelude: My Road to Radio Liberty (amabile) First Movement (1965-1970): Early Years of Audience Research (andante) Second Movement (1970-1980): First Steps in Audience Interviewing (accelerato) Photo section. Third Movement (1981-1985): Audience Research Breaks New Ground (sforzando) Fourth Movement (1986-1990): Perestroika Changes the Game (fuocoso) Fifth Movement (1991-1994): The Post-Soviet Transition (vittorioso, capriccioso, lamentoso) Postlude: Past Successes and the Road Ahead (coda) Appendix 1: Charts and Graphs referenced in text Appendix 2: Vignettes: Max Ralis, Helmut Aigner, Christopher Geleklidis, Steen Sauerberg, Andrei Nazarov, Ivan Myhul, Viktor Nekrasov, Andrei Sinyavsky, Aleksandr Galich, Victor Grayevsky, Vladimir Shlapentokh, Boris Grushin, Yuri Levada, Irina Alberti Appendix 3: Methodologies. MIT Simulation. Contribution of Ithiel de Sola Pool Appendix 4: Excerpts from Questionnaires, BALEs, BGRs Appendix 5: Subsequent careers of SAAOR/MOR Staffers Bibliography Index
£69.30
NUS Press Southeast Asia After the Cold War: A Contemporary
Book SynopsisInternational politics in Southeast Asia since end of the Cold War in 1990 can be understood within the frames of order and an emerging regionalism embodied in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). But order and regionalism are now under seige, with a new global strategic rebalancing under way. The region is now forced to contemplate new risks, even the emergence of new sorts of cold war, rivalry and conflict.Ang Cheng Guan, author of Southeast Asia's Cold War, writes here in the mode of contemporary history, presenting a complete, analytically informed narrative that covers the region, highlighting change, continuity and context.Crucial as a tool to make sense of the dynamics of the region, this account of Southeast Asia's international relations will also be of immediate relevance to those in China, the USA and elsewhere who engage with the region, with its young, dynamic population, and its strategic position across the world's key choke-points of trade. This is essential reading for decisionmakers who wish to understand our current situation, looking back to the end of the Cold War thirty years ago, and forward to an uncertain future.Trade ReviewNo other author has matched the width and depth of analysis as has Ang Cheng Guan. His histories of Southeast Asian international politics, from the perspective of a Singaporean, the centre of a diverse and dynamic region, provides a prospective not achieved by any other authority. Southeast Asia After the Cold War brings his penetrating account up to date.|Deft and imaginative sourcing gives Southeast Asia After the Cold War a clear and compelling perspective from within the region—one that renders alternative perspectives trivial. In linking the evolution of Southeast Asian regionalism to the uncertain search for a new order, Ang Cheng Guan has written a brilliantly conceived book.
£23.36
NUS Press US-Singapore Relations, 1965-1975: Strategic
Book SynopsisAt the height of the Cold War in Southeast Asia, the foreign relations between the United States and Singapore demonstrated the interplay between America’s strategy of containment and Singapore’s efforts at a non-aligned foreign policy. But there is a deeper story. American involvement in the Vietnam War not only held back the spread of communism in Southeast Asia, but also catalysed economic and strategic cooperation between the United States and Singapore. The author argues that Singapore might not have achieved its success so rapidly without the support of the US.As the war in Vietnam raged on, Singapore became a critical refueling point, also providing ship and aircraft repair for the US military. Commercial and strategic support from the United States lifted Singapore out of the economic doom predicted for the city-state after secession from Malaysia, cessation of Indonesian trade during Konfrontasi and Britain’s military withdrawal. By considering the importance of the US’s role in Singapore’s nation-building, this book provides an important supplement to the well-trodden narrative that attributes Singapore’s success to good governance.Trade Review"Daniel Chua deftly guides the reader through the complexities and nuances of this emerging relationship and in so doing, sheds new light on Singapore’s relations with the U.S. during the former’s first decade of independence. [...] In addition, his study provides fascinating insights into the twists and turns of Singaporean foreign policy at a crucial juncture in Asia’s regional politics. [...] a solid work of international history which makes a welcome contribution to the growing literature on the role of small regional powers in the unfolding of the Cold War in Southeast Asia." — H-Diplo Roundtable Review, Vol. XX.5
£26.06
NUS Press Singapore, ASEAN and the Cambodian Conflict,
Book SynopsisThis is a ground-breaking study of the diplomatic efforts in the aftermath of Vietnam’s 1978 invasion of Cambodia. In retrospect, the resolution of the Cambodian conflict marked an important shift in the international relations landscape of the region. Cold War big power politics gave way to a diplomacy centred on the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).This study is the first written based on the records of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Singapore, a key player in the complex diplomatic maneuvering of the period.
£30.95
NUS Press Britain and Sihanouk's Cambodia
Book SynopsisDiplomatic relations between Cambodia and Britain at the height of the Cold War provide unique insights into the overall foreign policies of both nations. King Norodom Sihanouk's strategy of preserving the independence and integrity of Cambodia through a policy of neutrality grew ever more challenging as the Cold War heated up in Indochina and the conflict in Vietnam became a proxy war between the superpowers. Despite its alliance with the United States, Britain's diplomatic objectives in the region largely aligned with Cambodia's, and British criticism of US policy towards Cambodia was a problem in the alliance.British diplomatic records present a fascinating window into Cambodian decision-making, and the rationale behind Sihanouk's sometimes apparently irrational policies. The reports yield new insights into Sihanouk's efforts to sustain Cambodia's integrity vis-à-vis its more powerful neighbours. Equally, a fine-grained analysis of British-Cambodia relations reveals much about the dynamics of British foreign policy in the period. Britain's ultimate dependence on its powerful American ally limited its influence in the region. After 1967, indeed, it ceased to have a strategic role. Over the period, British frustrations grew, even as it remained consistent in its foreign policy objectives and approaches.
£30.56
£24.05
