Expansionism

About: Expansionism is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 979 publications have been published within this topic receiving 11169 citations.

Stalin, the Politburo, and the Onset of the Cold War, 1945-1946

Abstract: The precise function that Marxist-Leninist ideology serves in the formation and conduct of Soviet foreign policy remains a highly contentious question among Western scholars. In the first postwar year, however, few senior officials or Soviet specialists in the West doubted that Communist ideology served as the constitutive element of Soviet foreign policy. Indeed, the militant revival of Marxism-Leninism after the Kremlin had downplayed it during 'The Great Patriotic War" proved to be an important factor in the complex of causes that led to the breakup of the Grand Alliance. Moscow's revival of that ideology in 1945 prompted numerous top-level Western leaders and observers to regard it as heralding a new wave of Soviet world-revolutionary messianism and expansionism. Many American and British officials were even alarmed by the claim, renewed, for example, in Moscow's official History of Diplomacy, that Soviet diplomacy possessed a "scientific theory," a "weapon" possessed by none of its rivals or opponents. This "weapon," Marxism-Leninism, Moscow ominously boasted, enabled Soviet leaders to comprehend, foresee, and master the course of international affairs, smoothing the way for Soviet diplomacy to make exceptional gains since 1917. Now, in the postwar period, Stalinist diplomacy opened before the Soviet Union "boundless horizons and the most majestic prospects."

Embodied Seeing-In, Empathy, and Expansionism

Abstract: I will argue that the ambition to provide a naturalized aesthetics of film in Murray Smith’s Film, Art, and the Third Culture is not fully matched by the actual explanatory work done. This is because it converges too much on the emotional engagement with character at the expense of other features of film. I will make three related points to back up my claim. I will argue (1) that Smith does not adequately capture in what ways the phenomenon of seeing-in, introduced early in the book, could explain our complex engagement with moving images; (2) that because of this oversight he also misconstrues the role of the mirror neuron system in our engagement with filmic scenes; and (3) that an account of embodied seeing-in could be a remedy for the above. In order to demonstrate the latter point, I will show how such an account could contribute to the analysis of a central sequence in Alfred Hitchcock’s Strangers on a Train (1951) that Smith also discusses.

Russia's Policies on the Territorial Disputes in the Arctic

Abstract: The territorial disputes in the High North are seen by Russian strategists as a significant threat to the country’s security. Some of these conflicts were successfully settled down while others are still waiting for their resolution. This study examines four cases – the U.S.-Soviet/Russian dispute on the Bering Sea, Norwegian-Russian dispute on the Barents Sea, Svalbard issue and the Russian claim on the extension of its continental shelf in the Arctic Ocean. The paper argues that currently Russia’s Arctic strategy represents a mixture of the expansionist/revisionist and soft power policies. On the one hand, Moscow is quite assertive as regards its claims on the Arctic continental shelf as well as demonstration of its sovereignty over the Russian part of the Arctic and military presence in the region. On the other hand, the Kremlin underlines that all territorial disputes should be resolved peacefully – through negotiations and on the basis of international law and institutions

Building Confidence during Peace and War

Abstract: : The Confidence Building Measures assessed in this Note are all fundamentally aimed at avoiding war or escalation. Although avoidance of war and escalation are high priorities for the United States, they are not only national objectives. If they were, there would be no crisis management dilemma. Rather, it is the tension between war avoidance and the protection of other U.S. interests that makes this problem so complex and subtle and, therefore, not amenable to formula solutions. This is further complicated by periodic changes in public and policymaker attitudes about the relative importance of war avoidance, defending allies, stopping Soviet expansionism, and other issues. The difficulty-for policymakers and analysts like-lies in balancing these and similar considerations. In many cases, traditional crisis management techniques may be more appropriate and effective than formal CBMs in balancing these competing interests. Keywords: Foreign policy, USSR, United States, Government, Cold war potential, Prevention.