Peace Studies as if Soviet Studies Mattered

Abstract

Students of peace studies and Soviet studies should provide complementary tools or mirrors for interpreting contemporary international politics, and yet, clearly, they are not responding to this call. The seriousness of the intellectual lacunae created by Soviet studies and peace studies scholars working in isolation from each other is addressed in this article in several ways. First, claims about existing differences in the two approaches are established. Second, the constructive, nonoverlapping contributions each approach can make in understanding contemporary Soviet politics are illustrated through a dual annotation of a speech by Gorbachev. Following comments on this particular text made from a peace studies perspective and a Soviet studies perspective, the article addresses particular issues that may be understood more deeply by incorporating the two approaches. In conclusion, an assessment is made of the promise of collaborative work in Soviet studies and peace studies.

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References

1. Stephen F. Cohen , Rethinking the Cold War: Politics and History since 1917 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), p. 37.

2. Alvin Z. Rubinstein , Soviet Foreign Policy since World War II: Imperial and Global (Cambridge, MA: Winthrop, 1981), p. 217.

3. For an exception that proves the rule, see Jerry Hough , “The End of Russia's `Khomeini Period,' ” World Policy Journal, 4(4) (Fall 1987).

4. For a lengthy description and exploration of this strand in peace studies, see Elise Boulding , Building a Global Civic Culture: Education for an Interdependent World (New York: Teachers College Press, 1988).

See “In Gorbachev's Words: `To Preserve the Vitality of Civilization',” New York Times, 8 Dec. 1988, p. 6.

6. Bruce Parrott , Politics and Technology in the Soviet Union (Cambridge: MIT Press, 1985).

7. This point was stressed by Soviet participants in the U.S.-USSR Emerging Leaders Summit, Dec. 1988, sponsored by the American Center for International Leadership, the U.S. Information Agency, and the Soviet Committee of Youth Organizations.

Robert Jervis , Perception and Misperception in International Politics (Princeton; NJ: Princeton University Press, 1976).

9. William Loehr and John P. Powelson , Threat to Development: Pitfalls of the NIEO (Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 1983).

10.

10. V. I. Lenin , “Against Great-Russian Chauvinism,” in The Lenin Anthology, ed. Robert C. Tucker (New York: Norton, 1975).

11.

Jervis , Perception and Misperception in International Politics.

12.

Matthew Evangelista , “The New Soviet Approach to Security,” World Policy Journal, 3(4) (Fall 1986).

13.

13. “In Gorbachev's Words.”