The Balkan Challenge to the Warsaw Pact, 1960–64

Crump, Laurien

doi:10.1057/978-1-137-43903-1_7

Cited by 3 publications

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“…In their attempt to thwart the reforms, which they regarded as an impingement on their sovereignty, the Romanians contributed considerably to its transformation by increasing the self-consciousness of its members and by triggering a debate on the purpose of the organisation, the manner of decision making and the role of sovereignty. 77 Although Romanian opposition often sparked dissent among other members, all members began to instrumentalise the international organisation and the debates about its activity and usefulness in order to obtain some room for manoeuvre from the Soviet Union in defining their foreign policy. In fact, the archival records show that the Romanian leaders often regarded the attitude of the other small member states, mainly Poland and the GDR, as a greater impediment to furthering their national interest than the Kremlin.…”

Section: Multilateralisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reassessing Communist International Organisations: A Comparative Analysis of COMECON and the Warsaw Pact in relation to their Cold War Competitors

Crump¹,

Godard²

2017

Contemporary European History

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This article widens the analysis of international organisations by including communist organisations, in particular the Warsaw Pact and the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (COMECON). Drawing on archival research in Moscow, Bucharest, Berlin, Geneva and Rome, this article traces the origins, the evolution and the collective actorness of both organisations. Both COMECON and the Warsaw Pact went through a process of institutionalisation, reorganisation and multilateralisation and began to share many characteristics with their Western counterparts, such as the European Economic Community and NATO. Contrary to conventional wisdom these organisations thus developed into multilateral international organisations, which the other members could use to challenge Soviet unilateralism. Comparing COMECON and the Warsaw Pact with each other and with their Western counterparts, this article shows how these Eastern European international organisations contributed to shifting the balance of power within the Soviet Bloc by empowering their members as sovereign states and themselves as collective actors.

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Section: Multilateralisationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Reassessing Communist International Organisations: A Comparative Analysis of COMECON and the Warsaw Pact in relation to their Cold War Competitors

Crump¹,

Godard²

2017

Contemporary European History

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“…The moment when communists started ruling Albania might appear to coincide historically with the end of the Second World War; instead the psychological state of war induced by the regime was obviously not over. The psychosis of the war kept on looming with ebbs and tides for more than forty years (1945–1990), and has almost always been present in the psychological and physical environment, and unrelentingly broadcasted by official mass media (4).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%