Red Globalization: The Political Economy of the Soviet Cold War from Stalin to Khrushchev

by Oscar Sanchez-Sibony

Overview

Was the Soviet Union a superpower? Red Globalization is a significant rereading of the Cold War as an economic struggle shaped by the global economy. Oscar Sanchez-Sibony challenges the idea that the Soviet Union represented a parallel socio-economic construct to the liberal world economy. Instead he shows that the USSR, a middle-income country more often than not at the mercy of global economic forces, tracked the same path as other countries in the world, moving from 1930s autarky to the globalizing processes of the postwar period. In examining the constraints and opportunities afforded the Soviets in their engagement of the capitalist world, he questions the very foundations of the Cold War narrative as a contest between superpowers in a bipolar world. Far from an economic force in the world, the Soviets managed only to become dependent providers of energy to the rich world, and second-best partners to the global South.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781139862141
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	03/06/2014
Series:	New Studies in European History
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Oscar Sanchez-Sibony received his PhD from the University of Chicago. His dissertation won the ASEEES Robert C. Tucker/Stephen F. Cohen Dissertation Prize in 2010. He is Assistant Professor of World History at the University of Macau, where he teaches courses on Soviet history, the Cold War and global capitalism.

Table of Contents

Part I. Isolation: 1. Depression Stalinism; 2. Postwar: the Bretton Woods Cold War; Part II. Aspiration: 3. Restoration: resuming the relationship with capitalism; 4. Maelstrom: the decolonization vortex; Part III. Integration: 5. Conformity and profit: the Soviet economy under American hegemony; 6. Poor relations: the limits of Soviet economic dysfunction; Conclusion: Mikoyan's legacy.

Editorial Reviews

"Red Globalization is an interesting and high-quality scholarly work drawing on Soviet history, Cold War studies, and international political economics. It invites ties to several other disciplines, including Soviet economic history, which has not been the focus of recent international scholarship."
Sari Autio-Sarasmo, Slavic Review

From the Publisher