Suchergebnisse

IN EARLY 1990, TWO DEVELOPMENTS RAISED CONCERN ABOUT SOVIET COMPLIANCE WITH THE 1987 INTERMEDIATE-RANGE NUCLEAR FORCES (INF) TREATY; BUT BY APRIL, ONE PROBLEM HAD BEEN RESOLVED AND THE OTHER WAS UNDER REVIEW. THE DISPUTES INVOLVED THE DISCLOSURE THAT SOVIET-MADE SS-23 MISSILES WERE DEPLOYED IN EASTERN EUROPE AND THE SOVIET REFUSAL TO ALLOW U.S. INSPECTORS TO X-RAY MISSILE CANISTERS AT THE VOTKINSK MISSILE PRODUCTION FACILITY.

I use the quality and quantity of energy flows to interpret economic, social, and political changes in the US and Former Soviet Union. The economic successes of both the former Soviet Union (FSU) and the US reflect an abundant supply of high quality energy. This abundance ended in the 1970s in the US and the 1980s in the Former Soviet Union. In the US, the end of cheap oil caused labor productivity to stagnate, which stopped on-going growth in wages and family incomes. To preserve the American Dream, which holds that each generation will be better off than the one that preceded it, women entered the workforce, income was transferred from saving to consumption, the US economy changed from a net creditor to a net debtor, and debt held by families and the Federal government increased. Despite efforts to hide the income effects, the end of cheap oil also is responsible for increasing income inequality. In the FSU, the end of abundant energy supplies meant that allocating the energy surplus among the domestic economy, subsidized exports to Eastern Europe, and hard currency sales to the West became a zero sum game. This contributed to the collapse of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) alliance and the FSU. If the US is able to extricate itself from personal and governmental debt, solving the social and political concerns about inequality is the next formidable challenge posed by the end of cheap oil.

Soviet type communist systems are organized hierarchically & are highly formalized & bureaucratized, as are their industrial relations systems & schemes of worker participation in management. Between 1953 & 1975, the USSR & the Soviet-controlled countries of Eastern Europe underwent a certain measure of modernization. Nevertheless, the basic nature remained intact. The trade unions continued to be subordinate to the ruling parties, & the main forms of participation by the working people in management continued to be production conferences & socialist emulation. In the same period, the Soviet model of industrial democracy was severely challenged in Poland, Hungary, & Czechoslovakia. Yugoslavia launched a rival model as early as 1950. While spontaneous strikes occurred only occasionally, certain apolitical or nonideological forms of deviance remained permanent features of the Soviet type system, ranging from lateness for work & indifferent performance through evasion & violation of formal norms to absenteeism, labor turnover, & pilferage. Prospects for far reaching reforms are bleak, & contradictions inherent to the systems remain. Modified HA.

[Parties shall ensure confidentiality of the coordinates of deep seabed areas.][Confidentiality of coordinates (Art. 1) to be preserved for one year from receipt;other information for five years. Time can be extended by notice of continued commercial sensitivity.]