The Cold War on the Periphery

The Cold War on the Periphery
Author :
Publisher : Columbia University Press
Total Pages : 468
Release :
ISBN-10 : 0231514670
ISBN-13 : 9780231514675
Rating : 4/5 (70 Downloads)

Book Synopsis The Cold War on the Periphery by : Robert J. McMahon

Download or read book The Cold War on the Periphery written by Robert J. McMahon and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 1996-06-13 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Focusing on the two tumultuous decades framed by Indian independence in 1947 and the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965, The Cold War on the Periphery explores the evolution of American policy toward the subcontinent. McMahon analyzes the motivations behind America's pursuit of Pakistan and India as strategic Cold War prizes. He also examines the profound consequences—for U.S. regional and global foreign policy and for South Asian stability—of America's complex political, military, and economic commitments on the subcontinent. McMahon argues that the Pakistani-American alliance, consummated in 1954, was a monumental strategic blunder. Secured primarily to bolster the defense perimeter in the Middle East, the alliance increased Indo-Pakistani hostility, undermined regional stability, and led India to seek closer ties with the Soviet Union. Through his examination of the volatile region across four presidencies, McMahon reveals the American strategic vision to have been "surprinsgly ill defined, inconsistent, and even contradictory" because of its exaggerated anxiety about the Soviet threat and America's failure to incorporate the interests and concerns of developing nations into foreign policy. The Cold War on the Periphery addresses fundamental questions about the global reach of postwar American foreign policy. Why, McMahon asks, did areas possessing few of the essential prerequisites of economic-military power become objects of intense concern for the United States? How did the national security interests of the United States become so expansive that they extended far beyond the industrial core nations of Western Europe and East Asia to embrace nations on the Third World periphery? And what combination of economic, political, and ideological variables best explain the motives that led the United States to seek friends and allies in virtually every corner of the planet? McMahon's lucid analysis of Indo-Pakistani-Americna relations powerfully reveals how U.S. policy was driven, as he puts it, "by a series of amorphous—and largely illusory—military, strategic, and psychological fears" about American vulnerability that not only wasted American resources but also plunged South Asia into the vortex of the Cold War.


The Cold War on the Periphery Related Books

The Cold War on the Periphery
Language: en
Pages: 468
Authors: Robert J. McMahon
Categories: Political Science
Type: BOOK - Published: 1996-06-13 - Publisher: Columbia University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Focusing on the two tumultuous decades framed by Indian independence in 1947 and the Indo-Pakistani war of 1965, The Cold War on the Periphery explores the evol
Foreign Policy at the Periphery
Language: en
Pages: 386
Authors: Bevan Sewell
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2017-01-17 - Publisher: University Press of Kentucky

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

As American interests assumed global proportions after 1945, policy makers were faced with the challenge of prioritizing various regions and determining the ext
Israel and the Cold War
Language: en
Pages: 288
Authors: Howard A. Patten
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2019-01-24 - Publisher: I.B. Tauris

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In the wake of its creation in 1948, the state of Israel was confronted with the challenge of establishing foreign relations with key players in the region, in
The Cold War in the Third World
Language: en
Pages: 256
Authors: Robert J. McMahon
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2013-04-24 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The Cold War in the Third World explores the complex interrelationships between the Soviet-American struggle for global preeminence and the rise of the Third Wo
The Cold War: A Very Short Introduction
Language: en
Pages: 208
Authors: Robert J. McMahon
Categories: History
Type: BOOK - Published: 2021-02-25 - Publisher: Oxford University Press

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The Cold War dominated international life from the end of World War II to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1