Paper presented at the Fifteenth Duke University Conference on Teaching the Social Studies.

Defines war as symptom rather than cause. Identifies the root cause of the Middle East crisis as destruction of the regional balance of power through foreign augmentation of Iraqi power. Criticizes the tendency to see world problems as a fight between good and evil. Defines realism as the ability to see political realities as a balance of power.…

This issue of a quarterly publication on world affairs explores the historical significance of the disintegration of the Soviet Union and the implication for U.S. foreign policy. With the breakup of the USSR in 1990-91, Russia for the first time this century does not have control over the non-Russian nations of its former empire in Central Asia,…

The goal of the Stanley Foundation is to encourage study, research, and discussion of timely international issues in such a way as to promote understanding of and tolerance for their complexity and to contribute to a secure peace with freedom and justice. Presented are four conference reports with a common characteristic. In each case, the United…

Paper presented at the Fifteenth Duke University Conference on Teaching the Social Studies.

Analyzes the foreign policy of former U.S. President Reagan. Discusses Reagan's policies toward the Soviet Union, focusing on his negotiations with Mikhail Gorbachev. Assesses the successes and failures of Reagan's foreign policy. Examines the impact of the Reagan Doctrine on world politics, and summarizes his legacy in the foreign policy arena.…

Scholarship on Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union has been influenced by the cold-war model of persistent competition between two monolithic superpowers. With Eastern Europe in disarray, that model cannot hold up much longer. Marxist theory is now questioned. (MLW)

Mikhail Gorbachev has drastically altered the foreign policy of the Soviet Union, and in so doing has also brought about a new international political reality for all of Europe. This paper contrasts Gorbachev's "New Thinking" in foreign policy with the Brezhnev Doctrine (an approach associated with former USSR leader Leonid Brezhnev that…

This subunit on the foreign policy of the USSR is part of one of four resource units in an eleventh grade area studies course. This subunit begins with a list of objectives, the generalizations, skills, and attitudes to be learned in this section. The materials treat the relations of the USSR with other countries and introduce the USSR's split…

Like no other region on the globe, the Caribbean Basin has served as a testing ground for U.S. foreign policy. Of all the countries in the region, Cuba has been the scene of many of the United States' most riveting foreign policy dramas. The teacher resource book and student text probe the complex, often troubled, relationship between the United…

Analyzes nuclear strategic doctrine by applying understandings of human communication processes to deterrence theory and game theory. Focuses on communication as risk. Demonstrates flaws in game theory because of its mechanistic view, stressing that communication is a process not an event, and actions are bound by cultural dispositions. Advocates…

The reinterpretation of past events has been a natural phenomenon of twentieth century historiography. Historical revisionism--the reshaping by contemporary scholars of traditional views of the past--has been an inevitable and necessary trait of the profession and has contributed to the growth of humankind's perception of previous generations.…

Hearings on The Soviet-Eastern European Research and Training Act of 1983 are presented. Objectives of the act are to help ensure the nation's independent factual knowledge of the Soviet Union and Eastern European countries, to help maintain the national capability for advanced research and training on which that knowledge depends, and to provide…

This document is the discussion guide for a four part video/print series designed to contribute to the understanding of the U.S.-Soviet relationship and the summitry process which has become such a visible part of it. Each of the four 30-minute programs interweaves archival material with informal discussions by distinguished scholars about…

This student booklet and teacher's guide examine the causes and the aftermath of the disintegration of the Soviet Union. The first two sections of the student booklet briefly summarize the Cold War and describe the unfulfilled promises of Mikhail Gorachev's "perestroika," the rising discontent among the people, and the birth of…