Red Globalization - The Political Economy of the Soviet Cold War From Stalin to Khrushchev

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.

List 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.

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.

Summary

Was the Soviet Union a superpower? In examining the constraints and opportunities afforded the Soviets in their engagement of the capitalist world, Oscar Sanchez-Sibony offers a significant rereading of the Cold War as an economic struggle shaped by the global economy.

Product details

• Authors: Oscar Sanchez Sibony, Oscar Sanchez-Sibony, Oscar (Universidade De Macau) Sanchez-Sibony, Sanchez-Sibony Oscar
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 15.12.2016
• EAN: 9781316635292
• ISBN: 978-1-316-63529-2
• No. of pages: 294
• Dimensions: 150 mm x 230 mm x 18 mm
• Series: New Studies in European History; New Studies in European Histor; New Studies in European History
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > History > Regional and national histories; Non-fiction book; Russland, UdSSR, Sowjetunion, European History, 20th century history: c 1900 to c 2000, HISTORY / Europe / Eastern, International Relations, 20th century, c 1900 to c 1999, Economic history, Political Economy, Later 20th century c 1950 to c 1999, USSR, Soviet Union