Clarifying the End of Cold War Debate

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Notes

 [1] Brown specifically cites two articles of ours on this topic: “Power, Globalization”; and “From Old Thinking to New Thinking.” He does not mention a third piece of ours – “Economic Constraints,” – which was written to complement our two articles and addresses most of the counter-arguments Brown makes in his article “Perestroika and the End of the Cold War”. As we noted, the goal of this latter chapter was to ‘evaluate the most influential arguments against the explanatory power of economic constraints on this case’ which entailed ‘careful consideration of counterfactual arguments’ (“Economic Constraints,” 274).

 [2] We were quite clear in explicitly distancing our analysis from standard formulations of realist theory (see on this “Power, Globalization,” especially 12).

 [3] For an explanation of why we adopted this focus, see “Power, Globalization,” 13.

 [4] “Economic Constraints,” 274.

 [5] “Power, Globalization,” 11; “Perestrioka and the End of the Cold War,” 4.

 [6] “From Old Thinking to New Thinking,” 98.

 [7] “Economic Constraints,” 297–8. In “Power, Globalization,” 33, we did use the term consensus, but were very careful to specify that this consensus applied only to the political leadership and that it specifically pertained to the ‘the need for downsizing the military and scaling back the costs of empire’. This is not a controversial claim. What is controversial is whether this consensus carried over to the military, as William Odom maintains; see Odom, The Collapse of the Soviet Military, esp. 91, 225.

 [8] English, “Power, Ideas, and New Evidence on the Cold War's End.”

 [9] “Perestroika and the End of the Cold War,” 9.

[10] “From Old Thinking to New Thinking,” 96.

[11] “Perestroika and the End of the Cold War,” 2, 13.

[12] Ibid., 5.

[13] Ibid., 14.

[14] “From Old Thinking to New Thinking,” 97.

[15] “Power, Globalization,” 51.

[16] “Economic Constraints,” 291–3.

[17] See, e.g., Davis, “The Defence Sector in the Economy of a Declining Superpower.”

[18] Masliukov and Glubokov, “Planirovaniia i finansirovaniia voennoi promyshlennosti v SSSR.”

[19] See, e.g., Harrison, “How Much Did the Soviets Really Spend on Defence?”

[20] These are reviewed in Neff, “Diary of a Collapsing Superpower.”

[21] “Power, Globalization,” 33.

[22] “Economic Constraints,” 308.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Stephen G. Brooks

Stephen G. Brooks is Associate Professor of Government at Dartmouth College.

William C. Wohlforth

William C. Wohlforth is Professor of Government at Dartmouth College.