Recent bombing campaigns and peacekeeping efforts have achieved a fragile and uncertain peace in Kosovo. However, NATO will need help from both the European Union and the United Nations to create and maintain a lasting peace in the region. An expert in the affairs of the troubled region, Rezun traveled to the crisis zone to interview Kosovar refugees and foreign statesmen. He offers a sharp critique of the conflict, taking NATO and the entire Western Alliance to task and emphasizing the villainous behavior of the Milosevic regime. One cannot consider what happened in Kosovo to be an isolated affair, Rezun contends.

Based on the widest possible range of sources, including documentation in nearly every European language, this study will appeal to experts and laymen alike. Rezun refuses to take sides. In addition to his criticisms of foreign intervention, exaggerated statistics, and reverse ethnic cleansing, he is merciless in his condemnation of the Serbs, in particular the corrupt influence of Milosevic and the late Arkan. In writing laced with irony, wit, and satire, he reveals the foibles of limited war and the errors committed by all parties. Yet his primary focus remains on the sufferings of the men, women, and children who filled the refugee camps and the devastated villages to which they have returned.

This book examines French motivations behind the decolonisation of Tunisia and Morocco and the intra-Western Alliance relationships. It argues that changing French policy towards decolonisation brought about the unexpectedly quick process of independence of dependencies in the post-WWII era.

A fascinating and well-researched look at the British motor industry which will appeal to both academic readers and practitioners alike. Why are there now no major car manufacturers in Britain? Whisler considers this and the surrounding issues, making valuable comparisons with overseas manufacturers operating both in the UK and abroad, which provide us with additional interest and insight. Based upon careful use of company archives, this book covers in particular the issues of product development, quality, design, and range, ensuring that The British Motor Industry is destined to make a distinctive contribution to our understanding of the performance of UK manufacturers.

On October 30, 1990, Germany was formally reunified through an extension of the legal, political, and economic structures of West Germany into the former German Democratic Republic. For East Germans this transformation has been a challenging process. Former values, orientations, and standards have been subject to severe scrutiny as reunification has affected virtually every area of life.

Staab analyzes the development from the divided to the unified Germany and asks to what extent East Germans have adopted a national identity in line with that of the West Germans. He examines such identity markers as attitudes toward territory, economics, ethnicity, mass culture, and civic-political activity. Identifying a significant range of commonalities, he also finds striking features of mutually exclusive areas working to prevent a shared national identity. Scholars and other researchers dealing with German politics and contemporary history, political sociology, and nationalism will be interested in this book.

The collapse of Soviet power in Eastern Europe was relatively quick, peaceful, and unforeseen. In this important new study of Soviet policy in the region, Chafetz provides a fresh analysis of why Moscow redefined Soviet interests in Eastern Europe and an explanation of the decision not to use military force to shore up the disintegrating bloc. Particular attention is devoted to the interaction of domestic and international factors in the policy process; the causes and impact of ideological revision within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, and the role of GorbacheV's perceptions in his decisions.

Most people will admit that in 1985 they could not imagine that during their lifetime the Soviet Union would permit the Berlin Wall to fall, would allow democratic elections in Eastern Europe, and would withdraw its troops from the region, ending the Cold War. Yet, between 1985 and 1990, the Soviet Union reoriented its foreign policy rapidly, decisively, and peacefully. This book explains why the Soviet Union abandoned its long-term policy toward Eastern Europe: specifically, why the Gorbachev regime abandoned the Brezhnev Doctrine.

This study of the decisions that resulted in the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe helps us understand the factors and forces behind not only GorbacheV's Eastern European policy but also MoscoW's foreign policy in general, Soviet internal democratization, and the large-scale historical change in the 20th century. This book is important reading for those concerned with contemporary international and military relations and Eastern European studies.

Radical Planes? 9/11 and Patterns of Continuity, edited by Dunja M. Mohr and Birgit Dawes, explores the intersections between narrative disruption and continuity in post-9/11 narratives from an interdisciplinary transnational perspective, foregrounding the transatlantic cultural memory of 9/11. Contesting the earlier notion of a cataclysm that has changed 'everything,' and critically reflecting on American exceptionalism, the collection offers an inquiry into what has gone unchanged in terms of pre-9/11, post-9/11, and post-post-9/11 issues and what silences persist. How do literature and performative and visual arts negotiate this precarious balance of a pervasive discourse of change and emerging patterns of political, ideological, and cultural continuity?

As the transition from state socialism to capitalism takes place in various parts of the world, the everyday experiences of those individuals who are primarily affected by the drastic changes are often overlooked. Here, the authentic voices of 52 East German women who lived under state socialism and under the current reunified capitalist system are presented and examined in an effort to underscore the complexity of the transition on the most personal level. East German women, the author asserts, have had to shift their identities, expectations, and actions from accommodating one type of patriarchy to another, experiencing less gender equality in their everyday lives under capitalism than under state socialism. The author concludes that the women of East Germany, and possibly other post-communist states in general, are worse off, having regressed to fit into a more primitive form of patriarchy.

At the end of the Cold War, East German women's private lives and emotional capacities took on vital public significance, as ruling elites expected women to make significant contributions to the political and economic stability of the reunited country. To accomplish this stability, the social roles and spaces of East German women had to be redefined to fit into the West German model. Through the voices of these women, the author shows that they fared better in some respects under the old socialist system and that they were now subjected to new, and much more traditional, gender roles even as they were expected to work and advance within the more patriarchal system. By presenting and analyzing the thoughts and perceptions of these women, the author illustrates how they have resisted, to various degrees, complying with the demands made by the newly established institutions, which require them to relinquish the crucial part of their identity that was shaped by socialist norms and values.

Once a most unlikely candidate, Barack Obama's successful campaign for the White House made him a worldwide sensation and a transformative figure even before he was inaugurated. Elected as the Iraq War and Great Recession discouraged millions of Americans, Obama's promise of hope revived the national spirit. Had he only saved the economy, Obama would be considered a truly successful president. However he has achieved so much more, against ferocious opposition, that he can be counted as one of the most consequential presidents in history. With health care reform, he ended a crisis of escalating costs and inadequate access that threatened 50 million people. His energy policies drove down the cost of power generated by the sun, wind, and even fossil fuels. His climate change efforts produced the first treaty to address global warming in a meaningful way, and his diplomacy produced a dramatic reduction in the nuclear threat posed by Iran. Add the withdrawal of troops from Iraq, the normalisation of relations with Cuba, and the "pivot" toward Asia, and his successes abroad match those at home. In A Consequential President, Michael D'Antonio tallies Obama's long record of achievement, both his major successes and less-noticed ones that nevertheless contribute to his legacy. Obama's greatest achievement came as he restored dignity and ethics to the office of the president, proof that he delivered the hope and change he promised.

Part of a series about principal World War II and post war leaders, this book is about Marshal Tito. This bibliography contains a biographical essay and chronology, a survey of manuscript resources, speeches and writings by the subject, a summary of newspaper coverage and a bibliography of relevant newspapers and a bibliography of historical and biographic works on Marshal Tito and his place in history.

Out of the ashes of its defeat in World War II, Japan arose to become the foremost economic power in the East Asia and a major player on the world economic stage. How did it do this? This work provides a concise summary and analysis of Japan's emergence as a global economic power. This guide discusses the growth of Japan as an unconventional global power based on the strength of its economy and the softening of its economy in the 1990s. Six topical essays are supported by a timeline of events in postwar Japan, biographical profiles of key players, the text of important primary documents, a glossary of terms, and an annotated bibliography.

Topical essays cover the reprise of the Rising Sun, Japan as a Cold War client, the evolution of Japan as an economic giant, contending with the Communists, pursuing partners in Asia, and Japan as a reactive global power. Biographical sketches of 15 key Japanese political and business leaders, the text of 15 primary documents, a timeline of events, a glossary of terms, and an annotated bibliography suitable for student research provide valuable reference material. Students will benefit from this cogent and readable examination of one of the key developments in the postwar world.

The remarkable, peaceful end of the Cold War dramatically-and unexpectedly-transformed international politics toward the end of the twentieth century. At the heart of this amazing change was the struggle over new and old ideas. Drawing on rich data from interviews with key Soviet architects of "new thinking" and of Gorbachev-era policy reforms, Jeffrey Checkel offers an absorbing historical narrative of political change in the late Soviet period, along with theoretical insights into the effect of ideas on state behavior. International structure and domestic institutions account for variations from country to country in how ideas influence state policy, Checkel argues. While a changing international political environment creates opportunities for the carriers of new ideas, these entrepreneurs must operate within domestic institutional settings that sharply affect their ability to influence policy. In the late Soviet period, entrenched assumptions about international politics were close to breaking down, creating a rare opportunity for new thinking. Checkel draws on this analysis of policy change in Soviet Moscow at the end of the Cold War, as well as in post-Soviet Russia, to illuminate the role of ideas in international political change.

Insurgency-based irregular warfare typifies armed conflict in the post-Cold War age. For some years now, western and other governments have struggled to contend with ideologically driven guerrilla movements, religiously inspired militias, and systematic targeting of civilian populations. Numerous conflicts of this type are rooted in experiences of empire breakdown. Yet few multi-empire studies of decolonisation's violence exist. Decolonization and Conflict brings together expertise on a variety of different cases to offer new perspectives on the colonial conflicts that engulfed Europe's empires after 1945. The contributors analyse multiple forms of colonial counter-insurgency from the military engagement of anti-colonial movements to the forced removal of civilian populations and the application of new doctrines of psychological warfare. Contributors to the collection also show how insurgencies, their propaganda and methods of action were inherently transnational and inter-connected. The resulting study is a vital contribution to our understanding of contested decolonization. It emphasises the global connections at work and reveals the contemporary resonances of both anti-colonial insurgencies and the means devised to counter them. It is essential reading for students and scholars of empire, decolonization, and asymmetric warfare.

In this superb volume, James C. Cobb provides the first truly comprehensive history of the South since World War II, brilliantly capturing an era of dramatic change, both in the South and in its relationship with the rest of the nation.
Here is a panoramic narrative that flows seamlessly from the Dixiecrats to the "southern strategy," to the South's domination of today's GOP, and from the national ascendance of southern culture and music, to a globalized Dixie's allure for foreign factories and a flood of immigrants, to the roles of women and an increasingly visible gay population in contemporary southern life. The heart of the book illuminates the struggle for Civil Rights. Jim Crow still towered over the South in 1945, but Cobb shows that Pearl Harbor unloosed forces that would bring its ultimate demise. Growing black political clout outside the South and the contradiction of fighting racist totalitarianism abroad while tolerating it at home set the stage for returning black veterans to spearhead the NAACP's postwar assault on the South's racial system. This assault sparked not only vocal white resistance but mounting violence that culminated in the murder of young Emmett Till in 1955. Energized rather than intimidated, however, blacks in Montgomery staged the famous bus boycott, bringing the Rev. Martin Luther King to the fore and paving the way for the dramatic protests and confrontations that finally brought profound racial changes as well as two-party politics to the South.
As he did in the prize-winning The Most Southern Place on Earth and Away Down South, Cobb writes with wit and grace, showing a thorough grasp of his native region. Exhaustively researched and brimming with original insights, The South and America Since World War II is indeed the definitive history of the postwar South and its changing role in national life.

The first study of the everydayness of political life under Stalin, this book examines Soviet citizenship through common practices of expressing Soviet identity in the public space. The Stalinist state understood citizenship as practice, with participation in a set of political rituals and public display of certain "civic emotions" serving as the marker of a person's inclusion in the political world. The state's relations with its citizens were structured by rituals of celebration, thanking, and hatred-rites that required both political awareness and a demonstrable emotional response. Soviet functionaries transmitted this obligation to ordinary citizens through the mechanisms of communal authority (workplace committees, volunteer agitators, and other forms of peer pressure) as much as through brutal state coercion. Yet, the population also often imbued these ceremonies-elections, state holidays, parades, mass rallies, subscriptions to state bonds-with different meanings: as a popular fete, an occasion to get together after work, a chance to purchase goods not available on other days, and even as an opportunity to indulge in some drinking. The people also understood these political rituals as moments of negotiation whereby citizens fulfilling their "patriotic duty " expected the state to reciprocate by providing essential services and basic social welfare. Nearly-universal passive resistance to required attendance casts doubt on recent theories about the mass internalization of communist ideology and the development of "Soviet subjectivities. "The book is set in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv during the last years of World War II and immediate postwar years, the period best demonstrating how formulaic rituals could create space for the people to express their concerns, fears, and prejudices, as well as their eagerness to be viewed as citizens in good standing. By the end of Stalin's rule, a more ossified routine of political participation developed, which persisted until the Soviet Union's collapse.

P.A.T.C.O. AND REAGAN: AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY - The Air Traffic Controllers' Strike of 1981 - documents those ominous days leading up to, including, andafter the fateful strike and consequent firing of over 11,000 federal employees by the President of the United States in August, 1981. Relying onprimary White House research materials available in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library archives, the book concludes that both the strike and thedismissal were not only predictable, but inescapable scenarios, given the resolute and tenacious personalities of the leaders involved. It discussesin length, the compounding effects that the strike had on its members, society at large, and the White House.

P.A.T.C.O. AND REAGAN explores the motivations behind the strikers' controversial actions and the corresponding rationales of their opponents, whichincluded just about everybody else. It highlights the heightened emotions that fueled the union's expectations before the strike and drove its ferventquest for redemption after the strike. The union's inability to comprehend how the strike would be perceived ultimately doomed its efforts andcondemned it to a collision course with the Reagan Administration, the general public, and even its own membership . As a consequence, organized laborin the United States would never be the same.

Cliff Harrington, an African American journalist and editor, grew up during a time when strong factions of proud black men were respected, admired, and loved. Even though the black men around him were not perfect, Harrington eventually grew to understand their thought processes and behaviors. In "Just Tell the Truth, " Harrington provides an insider's glimpse into the history of the African American men who set high standards, worked hard, and mentored a younger generation.

In a time when attending church was required, lying was prohibited, and respect for others was expected, black men knew unequivocally who they were and did not care how the world-particularly white America-perceived them. As Harrington narrates the fascinating history of the men who were smart enough to know they could not change the world but were determined to teach a younger generation valuable life lessons, he shares captivating insight into the daily lives of African American males who intensely believed that all who followed them would live a better life.

"Just Tell the Truth" shares one man's compelling observations about a time when African American men were strong and wise leaders in their homes, neighborhoods, and across the nation.

This book consists of notes of conversations by one of America's leading Latin Americanists, as well as his correspondence with more than two dozen presidents of the Central American republics, Mexico, Cuba, Haiti, and the Dominican Republic. In some cases, there are numerous conversations and letters with individual chief executives; in other instances, there are only individual conversations or notes on talks which the author heard. Each entry reflects the thinking of the person involved at the time of the interview or letter and many shed light on the activities of the individual presidents. Before the items dealing with each particular country, Alexander provides introductory notes, giving information on the individuals dealt with in that country as well as the circumstances of the letters and conversations. These materials, together with those contained in earlier volumes dealing with South America, provide students of 20th-century Latin America unique insight into its political leadership and its history from the 1940s onward.

Examining a series of court decisions made during the 1980s regarding the legal claims of several Native American tribes who attempted to protect ancestrally revered lands from development schemes by the federal government, this book looks at important questions raised about the religious status of land. The tribes used the First Amendment right of free exercise of religion as the basis of their claim, since governmental action threatened to alter the land which served as the primordial sacred reality without which their derivative religious practices would be meaningless. Brown argues that a constricted notion of religion on the part of the courts, combined with a pervasive cultural predisposition towards land as private property, marred the Constitutional analysis of the courts to deprive the Native American plaintiffs of religious liberty.

Brown looks at four cases, which raised the issue at the federal district and appellate court levels, centered on lands in Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota, and Arizona; then it considers a fifth case regarding land in northwestern California, which ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court. In all cases, the author identifies serious deficiencies in the judicial evaluations. The lower courts applied a conception of religion as a set of beliefs and practices that are discrete and essentially separate from land, thus distorting and devaluing the fundamental basis of the tribal claims. It was this reductive fixation of land as property, implicit in the rulings of the first four cases, that became explicitly sanctioned and codified in the Supreme Court's decision in "Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association" of 1988. In reaching such a position, the Supreme Court injudiciously engaged in a policy determination to protect government land holdings, and did so through a shocking repudiation of its own long established jurisprudential procedure in cases concerning the free exercise of religion.

Sitting in the ruins of the Third Reich, most Germans wanted to know which of the two post-war German states would erase the material traces of their wartime suffering most quickly and most thoroughly. Consumption and the quality of everyday life quickly became important battlefields upon which the East-West conflict would be fought. This book focuses on the competing types of consumer societies that developed over time in the two Germanies and the legacy each left. Consuming Germany in the Cold War assesses why East Germany increasingly fell behind in this competition and how the failure to create a viable socialist "consumer society" in the East helped lead to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. By the 1970s, East Germans were well aware that the regime's bombastic promises that the GDR would soon overtake the West had become increasingly hollow. For most East German citizens, West German consumer society set the standards that East Germany repeatedly failed to meet.By exploring the ways in which East and West Germany have functioned as each other's "other" since 1949, this book suggests some of the possibilities for a new narrative of post-war German history. While taking into account the very different paths pursued by East and West Germany since 1949, the contributors demonstrate the importance of competition and highlight the connections between the two German successor states, as well as the ways in which these relationships changed throughout the period. By understanding the legacy that forty-plus years of rivalry established, we can gain a better understanding of the current tensions between the eastern and western regions of a united Germany.

In Once Upon a Time in Biafra, the prolific Nigerian historian Onianwa Oluchukwu Ignatus has produced an unprecedented study of prominent individuals from across the globe who visited the Republic of Biafra and Federal side of the Nigerian Civil War of 1967-1970. This innovative new study contributes much to restoring the memory of the civil war, which has faded in recent decades. There is no better way to take a glimpse of how life was in Biafra as well as the Federal side of the war other than a careful study of reports of those who visited these troubled areas. Apart from those who were on ground and participated actively in the civil war, the reports of those who visited war territories offer another major source for historians to understand wartime life experiences on both sides. Individual reports analyzed in this book include reports presented to both the British and United States governments, some official visitors sent by their nations and others invited guests of either the Biafran government or the Federal military government of Nigeria. They included parliamentarians, journalists, medical personnel, government officials, and religious leaders, among others. Reportage about life on both sides of the Nigerian Civil War, particularly in Biafra, is striking commentary on wartime experiences that have become part of the historiography and memory of the Nigerian Civil War. As Ignatus explains, these experiences of foreigners have helped to define the legacies of that conflict with regard to individual contributions and the roles of both civilians and military personnel. Observation of everyday life serves as a way of understanding how people lived and adapted to conflict situations, and offers an equally worthy guide for efforts towards healing the war's enduring wounds.

This account of the 1965 Dominican intervention is a case study in U.S. crisis management. Herbert Schoonmaker analyzes the role and management of U.S. military forces in the Dominican crisis. Like other Cold War interventions, the Dominican intervention demonstrated the use of rapidly reacting, joint military forces to achieve limited political objectives. It also represents a good vehicle for analyzing U.S. civilian-military relationships during this kind of military operation. At the same time the civil strife continued in Santo Domingo, U.S. military forces engaged in a variety of duties, both combat and peacekeeping, and did so while the Organization of American States, the United Nations, and U.S. government teams attempted to negotiate a peaceful settlement. Such a complex environment, Schoonmaker argues, necessitated tight civilian control of the engaged armed forces and required restraint in carrying out their combat duties. In addition to the political-military factors, Schoonmaker also focuses on the joint army-navy-air aspects of the operation. He concentrates on the uniqueness of the intervention which makes the lessons learned from it applicable in some circumstances, but not in others. A study of the Dominican intervention is important because of its implications for defense needs and structure in a time of tight military budgets. The author also outlines the problems associated with quick-reacting forces and indicates the necessity for efficient intelligence, communications, logistics, and command and control. This book is must reading for military theoreticians and strategists, historians, and political scientists.

Published on the 40th anniversary of the end of the war in Vietnam, this book brings to life the experiences and memories of South Vietnamese soldiers-the forgotten combatants of this controversial conflict. South Vietnam lost more than a quarter of a million soldiers in the Vietnam War, yet the histories of these men-and women-are largely absent from the vast historiography of the conflict. By focusing on oral histories related by 40 veterans from the former Republic of Vietnam Armed Forces, this book breaks new ground, shedding light on an essentially unexplored aspect of the war and giving voice to those who have been voiceless. The experiences of these former soldiers are examined through detailed firsthand accounts that feature two generations and all branches of the service, including the Women's Armed Forces Corps. Readers will gain insight into the soldiers' early lives, their military service, combat experiences, and friendships forged in wartime. They will also see how life became worse for most in the aftermath of the war as they experienced internment in communist prison camps, discrimination against their families on political grounds, and the dangers inherent in escaping Vietnam, whether by sea or land. Finally, readers will learn how veterans who saw no choice but to leave their homeland succeeded in rebuilding their lives in new countries and cultures. Relates the stories of South Vietnamese soldiers through a compelling narrative driven by oral histories Brings the experiences of these soldiers to life for the reader by sharing their compelling firsthand accounts Draws on a key oral history collection newly established at the National Library of Australia in 2013-2014 Provides fascinating insights into the soldiers' early years, their military service and experiences, and their post-war lives Conveys the strength of will and resilience that enabled these men and women to endure the hardships of war, the defeat of their armed forces, the loss of their country, and the challenges of becoming refugees and resettling in new lands

Scholars of second-wave feminism often center their research on northern thought and political activity and usually overlook the vibrant pockets of actiVism that existed elsewhere. In Remapping Second-Wave Feminism, Janet Allured attempts to reshape the national narrative by focusing on the grassroots women's movement in the South, particularly in Louisiana. This book delves into unexplored origins of the feminist movement. While acknowledging the ways that the fight for African American civil rights produced the women's liberation movement in the South-and subsequently in the North- Allured also locates other wellsprings of the movement that were particularly important to southern change-seekers, especially preexisting women's organisations such as the League of Women Voters, the YWCA, and liberal churches. For many southern feminists, being part of a faith tradition that emphasised social justice reform is what ultimately propelled them into working for gender equality. Allured highlights key figures in Louisiana; divisions based on regional, sexual, and ideological differences; access to abortion; lawsuits that had national implications that emanated from southern women; and the fight against sexual assault and domestic violence. Through detailed archival and oral history research, she has forged a new path, making this a foundational work for the eld. Remapping Second-Wave Feminism will amend how we reflexively view feminism as a northern phenomenon, giving proper due to the southern contribution.

General answers are hard to imagine for the many puzzling questions that are raised by Soviet relations with the world in the early years of the Cold War. Why was Moscow more frightened by the Marshall Plan than the Truman Doctrine? Why would the Soviet Union abandon its closest socialist ally, Yugoslavia, just when the Cold War was getting under way? How could Khrushchev's de-Stalinized domestic and foreign policies at first cause a warming of relations with China, and then lead to the loss of its most important strategic ally? What can explain Stalin's failure to ally with the leaders of the decolonizing world against imperialism and Khrushchev's enthusiastic embrace of these leaders as anti-imperialist at a time of the first detente of the Cold War?
It would seem that only idiosyncratic explanations could be offered for these seemingly incoherent policy outcomes. Or, at best, they could be explained by the personalities of Stalin and Khrushchev as leaders. The latter, although plausible, is incorrect. In fact, the most Stalinist of Soviet leaders, the secret police chief and sociopath, Lavrentii Beria, was the most enthusiastic proponent of de-Stalinized foreign and domestic policies after Stalin's death in March 1953.
Ted Hopf argues, instead, that it was Soviet identity that explains these anomalies. During Stalin's rule, a discourse of danger prevailed in Soviet society, where any deviations from the idealized version of the New Soviet Man, were understood as threatening the very survival of the Soviet project itself. But the discourse of danger did not go unchallenged. Even under the rule of Stalin, Soviet society understood a socialist Soviet Union as a more secure, diverse, and socially democratic place. This discourse of difference, with its broader conception of what the socialist project meant, and who could contribute to it, was empowered after Stalin's death, first by Beria, then by Malenkov, and then by Khrushchev, and the rest of the post-Stalin Soviet leadership. This discourse of difference allowed for the de-Stalinization of Eastern Europe, with the consequent revolts in Poland and Hungary, a rapprochement with Tito's Yugoslavia, and an initial warming of relations with China. But it also sowed the seeds of the split with China, as the latter moved in the very Stalinist direction at home just rejected by Moscow. And, contrary to conventional and scholarly wisdom, a moderation of authoritarianism at home, a product of the discourse of difference, did not lead to a moderation of Soviet foreign policy abroad. Instead, it led to the opening of an entirely new, and bloody, front in the decolonizing world.
In sum, this book argues for paying attention to how societies understand themselves, even in the most repressive of regimes. Who knows, their ideas about national identity, might come to power sometime, as was the case in Iran in 1979, and throughout the Arab world today.