SOVIET AND POSTSOVIET FOREIGN POLICY

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SOVIET AND POST-SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY

• Afghanistan
• The Soviet Unions Last War

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TODAYS AGENDA

• Administrative
• Web Sites of the Day
• News
• The Afghan War

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ADMINISTRATIVE

• Exam Next Week!!!
• Study Guide (end of class)
• Lunch 1200 at Wexner Cafe
• Papers Discussion (hand back at end of class)
• How is Orthodoxy Different from
• Catholicism, Protestantism etc.
• Need to contrast observations
• Are the Icon and the Axe still important?
• Was this a bait and switch?
• Orthodox legacy vs. Communist legacy
• Who is Russia and how did she decide to go back
  to Orthodoxy? (Yeltsin/Putin as contemporary
  Vladimirs, selecting the future course of Russian
  culture?)
• Examples vs. scientific tests
• Alternative hypotheses and confounding cases
• Russia and Serbia?
• Support for authority (obedience) vs. apologizing
• Ideologies, hegemony, and wiggling room (and
  variation)

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WEB SITE OF THE DAY

• Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe
• From Course Page or the Librarys
• Can do this from Home!!!
• Academic Universe provides access to a wide range
  of news, business, legal, and reference
  information. Various portions of the database are
  updated daily and most information is full text.

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FRONT PAGE

• Go to news for searches
• Go to Reference for country studies and timelines

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NEWS SCREEN
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GENERAL NEWS
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MORE OPTIONS
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TIPS- VERY IMPORTANT
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I PREFER BASIC SCREEN
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WHAT DO WE FIND???
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AN ARTICLE
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SUMMARY

• PLUSSES
• Lots of sources
• Goes back several years
• Pretty good search engine
• Can search by source
• Convenient output

• NEGATIVES
• Takes a little practice
• But well worth it!!
• Dominated by Western sources
• But can work around that

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AND IN THE NEWS...
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THE AFGHAN CRISIS

• Bolshevik Revolution
• 1919 Afghanistan Declares Independence,
  Neutrality
• 1947 British Leave India/Pakistan
• Afghanistan Wants Part of Pakistan
• Needs a Better Army to Get It

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THE AFGHAN CRISIS

• 1954 Krushchev Courts Afghanistan
• Economic Aid to Afghanistan (Why?)
• Zero sum vs. US
• Show off/market themselves to Third World
• Offset Chinese
• Results of Aid
• Uneven Development (haves and have-nots)
• Dependence on Moscow
• No Love of Outsiders

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THE AFGHAN CRISIS

• July 1973 Afghan Army Coup
• Attempt at Independence by bi-tarafi
• Balance off the biggest threats
• This upset the local communists...
• Communist Coup in 1978
• Khalk and pro-Moscow Parcham work together to
  goin power
• Taraki (Khalq leader) Purges Pro-Soviet Parcham
• Open rebellion against Taraki in the countryside

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THE AFGHAN CRISIS

• 1979 Moscow Sends in Help (25 December)
• They were asked
• Taraki killed by his minister (You too, Brutus?)
• Amin (Brutus) Attacks Mujahideen
• Welcomes Soviet Help
• Soviets Kill Amin and Bring back Parchams Karmal
• Under Cover of Treaty, Soviets Try to
  Exterminate Mujahideen

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THE AFGHAN CRISIS

• Brezhnevs War (1979-1982)
• Tactical innovation, policy stagnation
• No will to win or to withdraw
• Reactive security and foreign policy
• Some innovation independent brigades and more
  helicopters
• Andropovs War (1982-1984)
• Willing spirit, weak flesh
• Seems to have favored withdrawal
• But health and events worked against it

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THE AFGHAN CRISIS

• Chernenkos War (1984-1985)
• Limited Armageddon
• Tried to win (a vain hawk)
• Carpet bombing and attacks on refugee camps
• By mid 1984, 5 million refugees in Iran and
  Pakistan
• Still a very limited war
• But escalating (US stepped up support)
• Gorbachevs War (1985-1989)
• Bringing the boys back home
• Sees the war as a bleeding wound
• Mixed strategy to cover the retreat

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THE AFGHAN CRISIS

• 8 Years, 16,000 Dead, Lots of Money Gone, and
  Nothing to Show For It
• USSRs Vietnam
• US involvement?
• Soviets Gone in 1989
• But Similar Events in Tajikistan
• And the Taliban in Afghanistan

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WHY IS THE AGHAN WAR IMPORTANT?

• Mark Geleottis Afghanistan The Soviet Unions
  Last War
• Minor War
• Supportable- not a huge drain of resources
• Important as MYTH
• Always a disjuncture between news and facts
• Important as Window
• Took place at a critical time
• Did not cause the collapse, but helps us
  understand it

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WHY DID MOSCOW INTERVENE?

• Expansionism? Is this credible?
• Brezhnev Doctrine- defensive intervention
• Fear of Americanism- Amin a CIA stooge
• Fundamentalism- protect Central Asia
• Prancing Proconsuls- Moscow as puppets
• Reality? Some of each the dottering old men
  theory

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THE COLD WAR

• How would you characterize it?
• a war?
• peaceful?
• How about a Long Peace
• Gaddis Post WWII Long Peace
• BIG Question What Causes Peace?
• What Caused the Long Peace?
• How did we avoid War?
• Why did it End?

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CHANGES TO STUDY GUIDE

• From Nation-Eliminate
• Zinoviev Letter
• Koumintang
• Chiang
• Stalin and Fascism
• Stalins Far East
• Katyn Forest
• Berlin Blockade
• Korea
• Tito
• Soviet Philosophy of War

• From CNN Timeline- Eliminate
• Gautemala
• Dien
• Bay of Pigs
• Gulf of Tonkin
• Indonesia
• Six day War
• Tet Offensive
• Vietnamization
• Vietnam War Agreement
• Cambodia

Leave this up and give out papers
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QUESTIONS???