This book explores how the Cold War's ideological conflict was played out through competition over human rights values.
As the West feared that the Soviet Union might 'win' the Cold war, it shows how they sought to aggressively outflank the USSR on human rights, while the Soviet Union simultaneously attempted to establish itself as a moral superpower, superior to the West.
Examining how the Soviet leadership sought to respond to the West's amplification of prominent Soviet dissidents and global condemnation of their human rights abuses, they in turn depicted left-wing activists in the UK and the US as on par with famous Soviet dissidents in their press. Highlighting the extensive Soviet campaign to build global support for its image as a human rights' defender, it shows how they claimed support for striking trade unionists, protesting students, Native American rights activists and radical ant-racist groups, primarily in the UK and the US, to push a narrative of the inherent instability of capitalism in the two leading capitalist states.
Exhibiting this ideological struggle and uncertainty between East and West in new ways, Moral Superpower in the Cold War helps us to understand why the conflict took the trajectory that it did, and how it was experienced by those who lived through it.
A study of the integral role played by human rights in Cold War international relations and the USSR's attempt to transform its global image to become a moral superpower.
Arvustused
Political dissent during the Cold War is a well understood phenomenon, but the global perspective on this issue is often overlooked. Browns work offers an invaluable reflection on the contested nature of human rights internationally in this period. It demonstrates the differing viewpoints on this topic from both superpowers, and the great value in complicating our understanding of how moral concepts were applied. * Mark Hurst, Lancaster University, UK * This study offers new perspectives on the weaponization of human rights during the Cold War. Soviet leaders mirrored western championing of Soviet dissidents, by developing their own socialist conceptions of human rights. In connecting the New Left, Angela Davis, native American activists, and Arthur Scargill, James Petrie Brown shows us how the Soviet Union created its own dissidents. These figures were used to challenge capitalist societies and assert Soviet moral superiority. * Robert Dale, University of Newcastle, UK *
Muu info
A study of the integral role played by human rights in Cold War international relations and the USSRs attempt to transform its global image to become a moral superpower.
1. The Breakthrough of Dissent and its Transnational Reception
2. The New Left, Race and Radicalism, 1968-72
3. The Human Rights Revolution, 1972-79
4. The Soviet Press and British and American Trade Unions, 1979-85
5. The End of History and Transnational Dissident-Promoting
Coalitions, 1985-present
Epilogue: From glasnost to gibridnaya voyna
James Petrie Brown is an independent historian of the Cold War, Communism and Human Rights based in the UK. He received his PhD on Cold War human rights discourse from Northumbria University, UK.
