Sub-Project D04: The USA and the Soviet Union: Transformations within a Global Competition over Political Order, 1975 - 1989
Abstract
The Cold War was a global conflict between two mutually exclusive forms of political and industrial social order that both claimed universal legitimacy. This conflict can be divided into phases, in which the overall constellation of this global competition over order changed in fundamental ways (cf. Eckart Conze).
The first study looks at the question of why détente politics faced increasingly critique towards the end of the 1970s after having reached its climax earlier in the decade, and how this ultimately led to highly explosive international tensions. The second study investigates how this communicatively coerced “Second Cold War” in the mid-1980s was able to give way to a new phase of nuclear disarmament and how this “new détente” ultimately led to transformations within this competition over social order between the two major superpowers.
Project D04 works with the premise that the reciprocal discourses of threat and the competition over social order between the superpowers were decisively influenced by structural changes in modern industry and domestic political problems. It aims to develop a conceptual framework that links the international history of the Cold War from 1975 to 1988 with intra-societal transformation processes.
Project Team
Project Leaders:
Prof. Dr. Georg Schild
Dr. Katharina Kucher
Ph.D. Students:
Martin Deuerlein, M. A.
Roman Krawielicki, M. A.
Academic Disciplines and Orientation
Contemporary History
Project Description
Project D04 examines the global competition over social order between the USA and the Soviet Union. In their efforts to attain dominance and influence around the world, both superpowers saw the existence of a competing system of social order as a threat to their own vision of society.
Working from this perspective, the individual studies in Project D04 direct their gaze at the changing discourses of threat emerging from behind both sides of the iron curtain that shaped the contours of international Cold War tensions. Their primary focus is on the communicative strategies and practices of high-ranking political leaders and influential advisors. This thematic approach makes it possible to understand the history of the Cold War as an interactive process, and thereby show how the governments in Moscow and Washington were integrated in complex communication structures that affected not only their rhetoric, but also their perceptions and interpretations.
The studies deal with two consequential, yet interlocking time periods in which the general nature of the Cold War changed fundamentally. Whereas the first study looks at the escalation of international conflicts and the related discourses of threat from 1975-1983, the second study examines the de-escalation processes that came into play in 1983/84 and ultimately transformed this competition over social order.
1st Study
The first study (Martin Deuerlein) pursues the question of how the détente, which had ensured for a seemingly stable international system of social order, gave way to an intensified confrontation between the two superpowers in the second half of the 1970s. It looks at how different groups in both states wrestled over the issue of how the Cold War should be fought. It analyses how patterns of perception that were shaped by ideology often led decision-makers on one side of the iron curtain to judge political statements and processes coming from the other side as a threat, and how this then led to the build-up of tensions between Moscow and Washington. Furthermore, the project seeks to answer the following:
- How did the mutual perceptions of threat on both sides intensify in the wake of the superpowers' forced interventions in third world countries (Angola, the Horn of Africa, and Nicaragua)?
- How did the increasing political importance of Islam, which both superpowers saw as a threat to their own position in the Middle East and Central Asia, affect Cold War politics?
- To what degree did the far-reaching transformation processes of the 1970s affect international politics? These transformations include, among others, the feeling of weakness and vulnerability that emerged in the USA in the wake of the Vietnam conflict and Watergate as well as the rise of new social movements and the general structural upheaval associated with modern industrial society.
- How and when did the optimistic self-assessment of the Soviet Union give way to a feeling of weakness and vulnerability in light of economic, technological, and social difficulties as well as threatening signs of disintegration in the Eastern Bloc (such as the rise of Solidarity in Poland)?
The ultimate goal of the project is to use these topics to illustrate the reciprocal dynamics between the escalating discourses of threat between the superpowers and far-reaching intra-societal transformation processes.
2nd Study
The so-called “Second Cold War” reached its climax in 1983. In March, Ronald Reagan held his famous “Star Wars” and “Evil Empire” speeches; in September, the Soviet Air Force shot down a Korean civilian airliner (KAL 007) near Sakhalin Island; in the fall, the NATO arms build-up began; and in November, some of the Soviet leaders sincerely believed that NATO was planning a nuclear first strike as part of its Able Archer manoeuvre. Especially the last incident clearly illustrated to political leaders just how threatening the mutual mistrust on both sides had become. This turning point is the “launch site” for the second study in Project D04 (Roman Krawielicki). Its aim is to analyse the de-escalation process within discourses of threat from 1984 onwards and to show how the persistent struggle over social order between the superpowers was defused within the framework of disarmament. It looks at how fears that had previously blocked potential diplomatic measures gradually lost their political clout. Moreover, this project pays special attention to the following questions:
- How did the generational shift and personnel changes in foreign policy offices alter modes of perception, maxims for action, and communication strategies?
- Which socio-economic causes and political goals were associated with discourses of de-escalation?
- What were the effects of the revival of face-to-face contact at the uppermost governmental levels (such as at the summits in Geneva, Reykjavik, Washington, and Moscow)?
- How did discourse strategies in the rhetorical exchange between Moscow and Washington promote transformations in the competition over social order with their linguistic patterns and symbols?
The aim of the project is to comprehensively explain how social and political shifts in the Soviet Union and in the USA were influenced by de-escalation within existing threat discourses. Face-to-face meetings, popular movies, and media reporting contributed to the de-construction of established threat scenarios. The fear of the ideological enemy was replaced by the fear of a nuclear Holocaust; the “re-humanisation” of the global competitor increased demands for corresponding political action and thereby fostered the transformation of this global competition.
Project D04 within the CRC
Project D04 contributes to the CRC as a whole in three major ways: First, it explicitly deals with a threat related to the competition over social order inherent in the Cold War and looks closely at an era in which the terms “threat” and “threatened” (in terms of nuclear self-destruction) were used in an almost inflationary way in the political and journalistic language of the time. Secondly, it looks at the relationships between perception, communication, and emotions; it seeks to develop conceptual frameworks that help explain how individual processes of perception are linked to the social communication of threat. And lastly, in that the project examines the social dimensions of this international history, it seeks to reveal how international social order is interwoven with intra-societal social order in a threat situation. Consequently, it promises to make a beneficial contribution toward the question of how to define the “configuration of social order” in light of the dynamic interdependence between external threats and internal structural fractures in such a way that it can be used to analyse accelerated social change.
Project-related Lectures and Publications
Deuerlein, Martin
- Die Sowjetunion in Afghanistan: Deutungen und Debatten, 1978-2013, in: Tanja Penter/Esther Meier (Hrsg.): Sovietnam? Die UdSSR in Afghanistan 1979-1989, Paderborn 2014 (in Vorbereitung).
- mit Boris Belge (Hg.): Ein goldenes Zeitalter der Stagnation? Perspektiven auf die sowjetische Ordnung der Brežnev-Zeit, Bd.2 der SFB 923-Reihe ‚Bedrohte Ordnungen‘, Tübingen 2014, Link.
- Boris Belge/Martin Deuerlein: Einleitung: Ein Goldenes Zeitalter der Stagnation? Neue Perspektiven auf die Brežnev-Ära, in: Boris Belge/Martin Deuerlein (Hrsg.): Goldenes Zeitalter der Stagnation? Perspektiven auf die sowjetische Ordnung der Brežnev-Ära, Tübingen 2014, S. 1-33.
- Rezension zu: Haslam, Jonathan: Russia's Cold War. From the October Revolution to the Fall of the Wall. New Haven 2011, in: H-Soz-u-Kult, 12.10.2012.
- Rezension zu: Greiner, Bernd; Müller, Tim; Weber, Claudia (Hg.): Macht und Geist im Kalten Krieg. Hamburg 2011, in: H-Soz-u-Kult, 25.04.2012.
- 04.09.2014 - "The 'Birth Pains of Interdependence' – Interpretations of Global Change and Soviet-American Relations, 1968-1983"; Vortrag im Rahmen der Sixth Annual European Summer School on Cold War History, Trient.
- 15.07.2014: Podiumsdiskussion "Auswirkungen des Kalten Krieges auf die deutsch-russischen Beziehungen", Tübingen.
- 17.01.2014 - "Sozialistische Normalisierung oder finale Krise? Die Sowjetunion in den 1970er und 1980er Jahren"; Vortrag im Rahmen des 11. Potsdam DoktorandInnenforums zur Zeitgeschichte: Krisen als Normalität? Wahrnehmung und Reaktionen seit 1945, ZZF Potsdam.
- 03.10.2013 - "The Image of Détente: Photography and Soviet-American Relations during the 1970s"; Vortrag im Rahmen der Konferenz "Photography and Visual Orders in the History of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union", DHI Moskau.
- 15.03.2013 - "The Bear Trap? Iran, Afghanistan and the Prelude to Invasion, 1978-1979"; Vortrag im Rahmen der Konferenz "Afghanistan, the Cold War, and the End of the Soviet Union", Helmut-Schmidt-Universität.
- 19.02.2013 - "The Bear Trap? The Prelude to the Soviet Invasion in Afghanistan, 1978/79"; Vortrag im Rahmen des Graduierten Workshops "Violence and Conflict", University of Cambridge.
- 18.01.2013 - (mit Roman Krawielicki) "USA und Sowjetunion. Transformationen einer weltpolitischen Ordnungskonkurrenz 1975 – 1989", Vortrag im Rahmen des SFB-Kolloquiums.
- 11.02.2012 - "Die Meždunarodniki und die Krise der Détente, 1975-1980"; Vortrag im Rahmen des Workshops "Ein goldenes Zeitalter der Stagnation? Perspektiven auf die Brežnev-Zeit 1964-1982", Universität Tübingen.
- 01.12.2011 - "On the Events in Afghanistan: Strategies to justify the invasion of Afghanistan to the Soviet public 1979-1989"; Vortrag im Rahmen der Konferenz "Public Relations of the Cold War", University of Cambridge.
Krawielicki, Roman
- (mit Tanja Granzow, Fabian Fechner, Jacek Klimek, Beatrice von Lüpke, Rebekka Nöcker) 'We are gambling with our survival.' Bedrohungskommunikation als Indikator für bedrohte Ordnungen, in: Aufruhr – Katastrophe – Konkurrenz – Zerfall. Bedrohte Ordnungen als Thema der Kulturwissenschaften, Bd.1 der SFB 923-Reihe 'Bedrohte Ordnungen', hg. von Ewald Frie und Mischa Meier, Tübingen 2014, S. 141-173.
- 02.10.2013 "Visualizing novoe myšlenie - The Photographic Dimension of the De-escalation of Soviet-American Threat Discourses in the Eighties"; Vortrag im Rahmen des internationalen Workshops "Photography and Visual Orders in the History of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union" am Deutschen Historischen Institut in Moska.
- 15.03.2013 "'Sovietnam'? Reagan Rhetoric and Politics in relation to the Soviet War in Afghanistan"; Vortrag im Rahmen der Konferenz "Afghanistan, the Cold War, and the End of the Soviet Union", Helmut-Schmidt-Universität.
- 18.01.2013 - (mit Martin Deuerlein) "USA und Sowjetunion. Transformationen einer weltpolitischen Ordnungskonkurrenz 1975 – 1989", Vortrag im Rahmen des SFB-Kolloquiums.
20.01.2012 "'Der Geist ist es, der den Redner macht.' Ronald Reagans Ghostwriter, persuasive Sprache und ihre Wahrnehmung in der Sowjetunion: Rhetorik als Implikation für eine zeitgemäße Geschichtsschreibung." Vortrag auf dem 4. Studientag der Osteuropäischen Geschichte der Universitäten Konstanz und Tübingen.
Kucher, Katharina
- mit Thum, Gregor; Urbansky, Sören (Hg.): Stille Revolutionen. Die Neuformierung der Welt seit 1989, Frankfurt 2013.
- 13.12.2013 - "Fotografie und visuelle Ordnungen in der Geschichte des Zarenreichs und der Sowjetunion: Ein Tagungsbericht"; Vortrag auf dem SFB-Kolloquium, Universität Tübingen.
- 19.12.2012 - (mit Georg Schild) "Ordnungskonkurrenz: Die UdSSR und die USA im Zweiten Kalten Krieg 1975-1989." Vortrag im Rahmen des Studium Generale, Tübingen.
Schild, Georg
- 1983: Das gefährlichste Jahr des Kalten Krieges, Paderborn 2013.
- 11.10.2013 - "1983: Das gefährlichste Jahr des Kalten Krieges"; Vortrag im Rahmen der Vortragsreihe des Fördervereins Geschichte "Bedrohte Ordnungen: Der Sonderforschungsbereich 923 stellt sich vor", Universität Tübingen.
- 12.07.2013 - "Was der Abschluss der KAL 007 über das amerikanisch-sowjetische Verhältnis aussagt", Tübingen.
- 18.02.2013 - "The Most Dangerous Year of the Cold War"; Gastvortrag an der Temple University, Philadelphia.
- 19.12.2012 - (mit Katharina Kucher) "Ordnungskonkurrenz: Die UdSSR und die USA im Zweiten Kalten Krieg 1975-1989." Vortrag im Rahmen des Studium Generale, Tübingen.
Congresses, Workshops, and Conferences
- 2. bis 4. Oktober 2013 - International Workshop "Fotografie und visuelle Ordnungen in der Geschichte des Zarenreichs und der Sowjetunion", German Historical Institute Moscow.
The Workshop Report is availbale in PDF-Format here. - 13. bis 15. September 2013 - Internationaler Workshop "Neue Forschungen zum Kalten Krieg in den 1970er und 1980er Jahren", Blaubeuren.
Den Workshop-Bericht finden Sie in PDF-Format hier. - 9. bis 11. Februar 2012 - Workshop "Ein goldenes Zeitalter der Stagnation? Perspektiven auf die Breznev-Zeit, 1964-1982", Tübingen.
Den Workshop-Bericht finden Sie hier.
Project-related Courses
Deuerlein, Martin
- Wintersemester 2012/13: "Übung: Raumfahrt im Film, 1924 bis 1995"
- Wintersemester 2011/12: Übung: "Ein Kalter Frieden?" Aufstieg und Fall der Entspannungspolitik im Kalten Krieg, 1956–1986
- Repetitorium: Russisch/ sowjetische Geschichte, 1861–1991
- Sommersemester 2011: Übung: "The Global Cold War": Die Sowjetunion in der Dritten Welt, 1947–1991
- Wintersemester 2010/11: Hauptseminar "Der Zweite Kalte Krieg": Die USA und die Sowjetunion 1975–1988 (zusammen mit Prof. Dr. Klaus Gestwa und Prof. Dr. Georg Schild)
Krawielicki, Roman
- Sommersemester 2012: Hauptseminar "Détente und Konfrontation - amerikanisch-sowjetische Beziehungen von Nixon bis Reagan" (zusammen mit Prof. Dr. Georg Schild)
- Wintersemester 2010/11: Hauptseminar „Der Zweite Kalte Krieg": Die USA und die Sowjetunion 1975–1988 (zusammen mit Prof. Dr. Klaus Gestwa und Prof. Dr. Georg Schild)