Suchergebnisse

After its break with established diplomatic partners in 1917 the Soviet government moved slowly to reconstruct its relations with the outside world. Over the period up to 1991, the largest number of exchanges took place with Finland, & after WWII, with Bulgaria & the GDR. But the major capitalist countries steadily became more prominent, & the US was the USSR's most important diplomatic partner during the 1970s. Similiarly, the CMEA states were the USSR's main partners after WWII, but by the late 1980s it was NATO member states that predominated. Patterns of this kind are consistent with theories that have suggested the gradual "socialization" of revolutionary states as they necessarily engage in patterns of interaction with the international community. 4 Tables, 1 Figure, 1 Appendix. Adapted from the source document.

In spite of its initial rejection of the international system, the USSR became increasingly involved in diplomatic relations with the other—largely capitalist—powers. The intensity of diplomatic activity increased from the Khrushchev years, not only in relation to other states but also to international bodies and conventions. There was a comparable change, in the later wartime years and under Khrushchev, in the proportion of foreign states with which the USSR sustained relations; by the end of the Soviet period, in 1991, there were diplomatic relations with 85 per cent of the members of the international community. This evidence supports the thesis that outcast states will tend to become 'socialised' into a more cooperative relationship with their counterparts; it also suggests that the USSR had become a largely 'normal' participant in the international system before the end of communist rule.

Examines how outcast states tend to become integrated as normal participants in the international system through the case of the Soviet Union; argues that the end of the Cold War may be seen as the outcome of the process of socialization of the Soviet regime within the international system. Included in a collection of articles under the overall title "The Soviet Union: expansion and socialisation".