The Soviet Union and Cold War Neutrality and Nonalignment in Europe: (The Harvard Cold War Studies Book Series)

The Soviet Union and Cold War Neutrality and Nonalignment in Europe examines how the neutral European countries and the Soviet Union interacted after World War II. Amid the Cold War division of Europe into Western and Eastern blocs, several long-time neutral countries abandoned neutrality and joined NATO. Other countries remained neutral but were still perceived as a threat to the Soviet Union’s sphere of influence. Based on extensive archival research, this volume offers state-of-the-art essays about relations between Europe’s neutral states and the Soviet Union during the Cold War and how these relations were perceived by other powers.

Table of Contents:
Introduction, Peter Ruggenthaler and Aryo Makko PART I. Theories and Practices of Neutrality in Cold War Europe Chapter 1: Austria’s Neutrality—Myth versus Reality, Franz Cede Chapter 2: Swedish Neutrality, 1949–1991, Olof Kronvall Chapter 3: Swiss Cold War Neutrality: Undisputed Principle of Foreign Policy, Thomas Fischer Chapter 4: Neutrality as Compromises: Finland’s Cold War Neutrality, Johanna Rainio-Niemi PART II. The Neutrals in Soviet Policy from Stalin to Gorbachev Chapter 5: Swedish Neutrality: The View from Moscow, Alexey Komarov Chapter 6: Soviet Attitudes to Finnish Neutralism, 1947–1989, Kimmo Rentola Chapter 7: A Hidden Danger for the Eastern Bloc? Neutral Austria in Soviet Policy from 1955 to the End of the Cold War, Peter Ruggenthaler Chapter 8 The Soviet Union and Neutral Switzerland: Concerns and Hopes in 1989, Olga Pavlenko PART III. The Soviet Union in the Policies of the European Neutrals Chapter 9: Old Fears, New Realities: Sweden and the Soviet Union during the Cold War, Ar

About the Author :
Mark Kramer is director of Cold War studies at Harvard University and senior fellow at Harvard’s Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies. Aryo Makko is pro futura scientia fellow at the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study (SCAS), professor of history at Stockholm University, and director of the Hans Blix Centre for the History of International Relations. Peter Ruggenthaler is deputy director and senior research fellow at the Ludwig Boltzmann Institute for Research on War’s Consequences, Austria.

Review :
[The] book absolutely delivers on its promise to provide a polycentric perspective on neutrality in Cold War Europe. It is going to be the first book to which to point students and scholars who are seeking a comprehensive history of the concept. In that context, I would be remiss not to mention the stellar bibliography of further reading, which lists not just the most important works on the subject, but also takes seriously the different historiographies of neutrality across Europe, and offers a rare collection of key works regardless of the language in which they were published. This book is a very welcome intervention indeed. This interesting collection of essays directs attention to the importance of smaller states in Europe as they negotiated degrees of autonomy and independence in the face of pressure from the great powers.