Gorbachev's Gamble

Beschreibung

The sudden ending of the Cold War, surely the dominant feature ofthe second half of the 20th century, continues to be one of themost unexpected and perplexing events of our time. Explanationsprovided by the winners and losers in the Cold War differconsiderably and often contradict each other. Even taken togetherthey do not provide a compelling answer to the key question: whydid it happen? Gorbachev's Gamble offers a new and more convincinganswer to this question by providing the missing link between theinternal and external aspects of Gorbachev's perestroika.Andrei Grachev shows that the radically transformed Soviet foreignpolicy during the Gorbachev years was an integral part of anambitious project of internal democratic reform and of the historicopening of Soviet society to the outside world. Grachev explains the motives and the intentions of theinitiators of this project and describes their hopes and theirillusions. He recounts the story of the internal debates andstruggles in the Kremlin and behind-the-scene decisions that led tothe Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan, the fall of the BerlinWall, the break-up of the Warsaw Pact and eventually the demise ofthe Soviet Union itself. The book is based on exclusive interviews with the leaders ofthe Soviet Union including Gorbachev, personal notes and diaries oftheir assistants and advisers and transcripts of the discussionsinside the Politburo and Secretariat of the Central Committee.Together they constitute a multi-voice political confession of awhole generation of decision-makers and opinion leaders of theSoviet Union that enables us better to understand the origin andthe breathtaking trajectory of the events that led to the end ofthe Cold War and the unprecedented transformation of world politicsin the late 1980s and early 1990s.

Autor*in

Andrei Grachev

Themen in »Gorbachev's Gamble«

Comparative Politics Geschichte History Political Science Politik Politikwissenschaft Vergleichende Politik

Stimmen zu »Gorbachev's Gamble«

"A major contribution to our understanding of the last years of theSoviet Union and to the end of the Cold War." Australian Journal of Political Science "The stand-off between Russia and the west over militaryintervention in Georgia in 2008 raised the spectre of a new coldwar between the world's military and economic powers. The timing ofAndrei Grachev's book on the events that led to the end of the oldCold War, therefore, could not be better. Gorbachev's Gambleis a sympathetic and detailed analysis of how the last Sovietleader's 'new political thinking' brought about the break-up of theWarsaw Pact and of the Soviet Union itself in 1991." Europe-Asia Studies "This gripping book is one that deserves the attention ofstudents of politics, international relations and history." Slavonic and Eastern European Review "The ultimate, definitive and conclusive account of one of themost transformative periods in modern history. As we continue to beshaped by the consequences of the critical years examined byGrachev, we shall continue to learn from this masterfulbook." Amitai Etzioni, George Washington University "Andrei Grachev, an important member of Gorbachev's foreignpolicy team, writes as a participant-observer. His penetrating andwell-informed account of the end of the Cold War, as seen from theSoviet side, offers a subtle and persuasive interpretation whichwill be a valuable corrective to much Western conventionalwisdom." Archie Brown, University of Oxford
()

Details

Link teilen