Publisher's Synopsis
"An excellent book. . . . I doubt if a single scholar exists who could cover such a wide range of problems with the depth of analysis that we find in this volume."--Darrell P. Hammer, Indiana University
Contributors consider why communist political systems in the USSR, Eastern Europe, China, and the developing world could not be revamped so as to allow communist parties to retain political power within an environment of reform. Among the issues discussed are the unwillingness of communist parties to relinquish real political and economic control; the reemergence of virulent nationalism and its role in ensuring the disintegration of multinational states; postcommunist transition strategies, both political and economic; and the degree of continuity or change between Soviet and post-Soviet foreign policies in Russia.
These previously unpublished essays have in common most of their authors' participation--thirty-five years ago--in a year-long graduate seminar at Columbia University entitled "The Communist Orbit." The book is dedicated to one of their teachers, Zbigniew Brzezinski, the Polish-born former national security advisor to President Jimmy Carter and professor of government who was one of the first to predict publicly, in 1988, the disintegration of the communist system.
CONTENTS:
Introduction: The Transformation of Communist Rule, by Jane Shapiro Zacek
1. The Soviet Military Changes Names, by William E. Odom
2. Creating Political Capital? by Barbara Ann Chotiner
3. The Communist Party on the Eve of Collapse: Changing Patterns of Political Behavior, by Cynthia S. Kaplan and Henry E. Brady
4. Reorganizing Intergovernmental Relations in the USSR, by Jane Shapiro Zacek
5. August 1991 in Comparative Perspective: Moscow and Kiev, by Zenovia A. Sochor
6. From Evil Empire to Democratic Capitalism: Alternative Russian Futures, by Nils H. Wessell
7. Balkan Politics in Transition: Nationalism and the Emergence of Ethnic Democracies, by Lenard J. Cohen
8. Polish Transition Strategy: Successes and Failures, by Lucja Swiatkowski Cannon
9. The Security of East Central Europe and the Visegrad Triangle, by Andrzej Korbonski
10. Chinese Foreign Policy During and After the Cold War, by Thomas W. Robinson
11. Russia and the Two Koreas in the Post-Cold War Era: Dynamics of New Relationships, by Ilpyong J. Kim
12. Soviet-Israeli Relations in the Gorbachev Era, by Robert O. Freedman
13. Marxist Regimes in Developing Areas and Changes in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, by David E. Albright.
Jane Shapiro Zacek is adjunct professor of political science at Union College, Schenectady, New York, and author or coeditor of nine other books, including Reform and Transformation in Communist Systems (1991), and Establishing Democratic Rule (1993). Ilpyong J. Kim is professor of political science at the University of Connecticut, Storrs and author or editor of sixteen books, including Two Koreas in Transition: Implications for U.S. Policy (1996).
