Expansionism

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

Science and Sovietology: Bridging the Methods Gap in Soviet Foreign Policy Studies

Abstract: Specialists in the study of Soviet foreign policy increasingly feel torn between the positivist culture of political science departments and the holistic traditions of the Soviet area-studies programs. In fact, these approaches are largely complementary. Examples taken from literature on Soviet security policy and on the domestic sources of Soviet expansionism show how positivist theories and methods can be used to clarify holist (or traditionalist) arguments, to sharpen debates, to suggest more telling tests, and to invigorate the field's research agenda.

Interbranch Rivalry and the Reagan Doctrine in Nicaragua

Abstract: In January 1981 President Ronald Reagan took office determined to do something about what he considered a growing tide of Soviet expansionism. To do so, his administration developed a strategy to aid anti-Soviet insurgencies in the Third World in their attempts to overthrow Marxist regimes. Eventually labeled the Reagan Doctrine, the strategy had matured enough by 1985 for the president to assert that the United States "must not break faith with those who are risking their lives on every continent, from Afghanistan to Nicaragua to defy Soviet-supported aggression."' In 1986 he declared, "America will support with moral and material assistance your right not just to fight and die for freedom, but to fight and win freedom . . . in Afghanistan, in Angola, in Cambodia, and in Nicaragua."2 However, a conflict developed over the application of the Reagan Doctrine to Nicaragua, where rebels known as the contras opposed the Sandinista government, which came to power in a successful revolution in 1979. This conflict reflected the high priority assigned the issue by the president and the intense scrutiny given the policy by Congress. Since the policy-making process extended over several years and included many players, the Nicaragua case makes for a splendid study in the American foreign policy-making process. This article examines the case, illuminates several salient features of American foreign policy making, and argues for a more complex framework for policy-making studies.

People on the Move: Forced Population Movements in Europe in the Second World War and Its Aftermath

Abstract: Europe has a long history of state-led population displacement on ethnic grounds. The nationalist argument of ethnic homogeneity has been a crucial factor in the mapping of the continent. At no time has this been more the case than during and after the Second World War. Both under the aggressive expansionism of the Third Reich and after Germany's defeat, millions were brutally forced out of their homelands. Presenting a history from the top as well as the bottom, People on the Move reconstructs the complex map of forced population displacements that took place across Europe during and immediately after the Second World War.

From the frontier to german south-west africa: german colonialism, indians, and american westward expansion*

Abstract: This article argues that positive perceptions of American westward expansion played a major (and so far overlooked) role both for the domestic German debate about the necessity of overseas expansion and for concrete German colonial policies during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. During and after the uprising against colonial rule (1904–7) of the two main indigenous peoples, the Herero and the Nama, of German South-West Africa (Germany's only settler colony), colonial administrators actively researched the history of the American frontier and American Indian policies in order to learn how best to “handle” the colony's peoples. There exists a substantial literature on the allegedly exceptional enchantment of Germans with American Indians. Yet this article shows that negative views of Amerindians also influenced and shaped the opinions and actions of German colonizers. Because of its focus on the importance of the United States for German discussions about colonial expansion, this article also explores the role German liberals played in the German colonial project. Ultimately, the United States as a “model empire” was especially attractive for Germans with liberal and progressive political convictions. The westward advancement of the American frontier went hand in hand with a variety of policies towards Native Americans, including measures of expulsion and extinction. German liberals accepted American expansionism as normative and were therefore willing to advocate, or at least tolerate, similar policies in the German colonies.