Book Review: The Final Act: The Helsinki Accords and the Transformation of the Cold War (original) (raw)
Related papers
The “Helsinki Final Act” and its influence on the decline of the Soviet Empire.
"FaTT", Forum of Foreign Policy Think Tanks; Diplomatic Academy of Vienna; , 2019
In this research paper, the backgrounds of the creation of the “Helsinki Final Act” and its influence on the dissolution of the Soviet Empire will be examined. With the conclusion of the Helsinki Accords in 1975, the dissident movement in the Soviet Union began to organize itself and to grow. This movement challenged the totalitarian Soviet regimes and left a deep impact on the civil society inside the Soviet Union itself. However, in 1975 the Helsinki Final Act was seen by many observers as a “Western defeat” and a Soviet diplomatic victory, since Leonid Brezhnev achieved the formal recognition of the Soviet influence sphere throughout Eastern Europe by the West. This initial “misconception” shall also be analysed in this paper.
LSE EUROPP blog, 2015
The Ukraine crisis dramatically provided an opportunity for the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to demonstrate its continued relevance to European security, forty years after the signing of the so called ‘Helsinki Final Act’ in 1975, which served as the foundation for the establishment of the OSCE. Martin D. Brown and Angela Romano provide an overview of the significance of the Final Act, its original aims and how its contents shaped future security developments up to the present day.
Encyclopedia of the Cold War. 2 vols.
3 short articles in Encyclopedia of the Cold War. 2 vols. Eds. Ruud van Dijk et al. “Chiang Kai-shek,” 1:138-141; “Great Leap Forward,” 1:379-381; “Liu Shaoqi,” 2:548-550. New York: Routledge, 2008. Between 1945 and 1991, tension between the USA, its allies, and a group of nations led by the USSR, dominated world politics. This period was called the Cold War – a conflict that stopped short to a full-blown war. Benefiting from the recent research of newly open archives, the Encyclopedia of the Cold War discusses how this state of perpetual tensions arose, developed, and was resolved. This work examines the military, economic, diplomatic, and political evolution of the conflict as well as its impact on the different regions and cultures of the world. Using a unique geopolitical approach that will present Russian perspectives and others, the work covers all aspects of the Cold War, from communism to nuclear escalation and from UFOs to red diaper babies, highlighting its vast-ranging and lasting impact on international relations as well as on daily life. Although the work will focus on the 1945–1991 period, it will explore the roots of the conflict, starting with the formation of the Soviet state, and its legacy to the present day.