The Warsaw Pact Reconsidered: International Relations in Eastern Europe, 1955-1969

This book examines the impact that the Warsaw Pact inadvertently had on the non-Soviet Warsaw Pact (NSWP) members, by providing an opportunity to assert their own interests, emancipate themselves from the Soviet grip, and influence Warsaw Pact policy. By analysing archival evidence and examining the Soviet alliance from a fresh perspective, the book is a significant contribution to New Cold War history, and offers new insights into the multilateral dynamics of power within the Soviet bloc

The Warsaw Pact is generally regarded as a mere instrument of Soviet power. In the 1960s the alliance nevertheless evolved into a multilateral alliance, in which the non-Soviet Warsaw Pact members gained considerable scope for manoeuvre. This book examines to what extent the Warsaw Pact inadvertently provided its members with an opportunity to assert their own interests, emancipate themselves from the Soviet grip, and influence Soviet bloc policy. Laurien Crump traces this development through six thematic case studies, which deal with such well known events as the building of the Berlin Wall, the Sino-Soviet Split, the Vietnam War, the nuclear question, and the Prague Spring. By interpreting hitherto neglected archival evidence from archives in Berlin, Bucharest, and Rome, and approaching the Soviet alliance from a radically novel perspective, the book offers unexpected insights into international relations in Eastern Europe, while shedding new light on a pivotal period in the Cold War.