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The Colder War: How the Global Energy Trade Slipped from America's Grasp

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Odd Arne Westad es un historiador noruego vinculado como profesor e investigador de la Universidad de Harvard, quien se lanzó a la titánica tarea de escribir una historia mundial de la Guerra Fría, como bien lo expresa en el título de su ensayo. Aquí dejaremos de lado la visión meramente euro centrista del conflicto, la reducción a una simple pugna entre Estados Unidos y la Unión Soviética y sus aliados o la mera focalización del mismo en escenarios muy concretos como Berlín, Vietnam, Corea, Cuba o Centroamérica; para analizar la Guerra Fría como una disputa de escala global que abarcó 4 continentes y de una u otra forma, a casi todos los países del mundo. Las dos tesis principales del autor se centran en demostrar por un lado que la Guerra Fría fue una guerra de dominación global y áreas de influencia – como si se tratara de jugar al “Risk” o a “Rise of Nations” pero con armas nucleares - y que contrario al imaginario colectivo cuando se habla de Guerra Fría, si existieron conflictos bélicos y uso de armas y tecnología soviéticas y estadounidenses por medio de las cuales se buscaba equilibrar la balanza a favor de uno u otro bando. Pero tal vez la tesis más interesante aquí planteada es la de mostrarnos que la Guerra Fría no arrancó en 1945 en la Conferencia de Postdam sino mucho antes, con la Revolución Rusa de 1917 y el ingreso de Estados Unidos a la Primera Guerra Mundial con la consecuente agudización de la división ideológica del capitalismo y el comunismo, frente a dos imperios que empezaban a perfilarse como el reemplazo de aquellos que agonizaban en los campos del Somme y Verdún. The country needed a strong, decisive leader, and it got one. Putin had risen from obscure KGB agent to President of the Federation in an ascension whose speed was unprecedented in Russian politics.

The strongest aspect of the book overall is its depiction and analysis of the global impact of the Cold War. (This is to be expected, since the author is an expert in this area.) The Non-Aligned Movement, especially major players Nehru of India and Nasser of Egypt, are discussed at considerable length. Regions that were more peripheral to the conflict (compared to Europe and Asia), such as Africa, also receive plenty of attention. Frustratingly, like the Gaddis book, coverage of the main events of the Vietnam War is brief and muddled--it gets a chapter of its own, but a third of that is taken up with matters elsewhere, and the conclusion of the war waits in a later chapter. Therefore it’s hard to see the progression of how the U.S. blundered into the quagmire, and eventually retreated out. On the other hand the chapters that cover how the Eastern bloc and shortly after the USSR itself unravelled are done well. Gorbachev gets his due as the key figure in all this, and is depicted partly tragically, as he loses control of his reforms and ultimately even the Soviet state. Okay, confession time. Espionage novels really aren't my thing, but I was prepared to give this one a shot, firstly because I've never read any of the authors work before and secondly because it was chosen for the Richard and Judy Spring Book Club this year. I follow their recommendations religiously and 9 out of 10 times they get it right for my personal reading interests. Unfortunately this time, I was sorely disappointed. As the story begins, the chief of MI6, Amelia Levene, also known as "C," is having a terrible time. A few agents abroad in Greece, Turkey and the Middle East that have defected to working for the West have been killed and rumours are flying around that there is a mole within the service. To add to this, one of her British agents Paul Wallinger (whom she was having a long-standing affair with) has been killed in a light aircraft crash yet the manner of his death is arousing her suspicions. He's still dangerous, but it's impossible to counter the danger if you don't know what it is. And you can't know what it is if you don't understand what Putin's trying to do. That describes most Americans, whether in or out of politics. Marin Katusa is one of the leading experts on—and most successful portfolio managers in—the energy and resource exploration sectors. Perhaps the most surprising interpretation in the book is the world-historical centrality it assigns to the Portuguese Revolution of 1974, not a moment normally treated as one of the hinges of history. But, according to Westad, the Portuguese rejection of Salazar had two signal effects.

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This is an ambitious work by the preeminent historian of the Global Cold War. Westad certainly touches on most of the countries that were affected by the Cold War, but his acceptance of the Cold War as a useful trope to evaluate the entire world is flawed. Indeed, Westad is one of the historians who has shown that the Cold War was anything but "cold." It was actually comprised of many "hot" wars. Portraying the conflict between the US and USSR as "cold" delegitimizes the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people around the world and portrays them as pawns in a bigger game by white, European and American powers. As one born in 1943, I remember many things about that time vividly: how in grade school we were instructed that, in the case of a warning siren or sudden flash of light, we were to kneel next to our desks and cover our heads; riding in the family car in the early 1950s and peering closely at a small house we were passing, hoping to get a glimpse of the mysterious person – a “communist” – that my father said lived there; and fearing, one beautiful autumn afternoon in the midst of the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, that we were on the brink of a nuclear war. Westad says the seeds of the Cold War were planted much earlier, in the latter part of the 19th century and the early years of the 20th century, when Western nations competed to accumulate colonies in India, Africa, and Asia, China suffered repeated interventions by the West and Japan, and Russia and the United States began to assume greater international prominence. patakis wested psixros polemosΤο γεγονός ότι ο συγγραφέας δεν παραθέτει απλώς τα γεγονότα, αλλά αντιθέτως επεξηγεί αιτίες και αποτελέσματα και τα συνδέει με τη σύγχρονη εποχή, καθιστά το βιβλίο αυτό πολύτιμο για όσους επιθυμούν, όχι τόσο να γνωρίσουν την ιστορία του εικοστού αιώνα, όσο να πετύχουν τη μέγιστη κατανόησή της.

Yes, he would resort to military action when he deemed it necessary, and would do so with overwhelming force—his first official act was to brutally crush the Chechnyan rebellion once and for all. This is a tome for those interested in international relations and modern history. It is not for the casual reader. Stross has admitted 'A Colder War' is directly inspired by Lovecraft's novel 'At The Mountains of Madness'." -- "Review of A Colder War by Charles Stross", SFFaudioThomas Kell, an out of favour secret service agent is called in by his boss to investigate the suspicious circumstances of a close friend's death. The idea is that there is a mole who has been sniffing out secrets and passing them on to the enemy and Kell has to identify and the nail the guy to clear his friend's name and the reason his death. Where the book is particularly strong is in tracing the roots of the Cold War to ideological conflicts that date from the late C19th. It also does it's best to live up to the sub-title, often focusing on powers other than the USSR and the USA. So for example it is strong on the de-stabilizing role of China, and how regional conflicts actually sometimes arose with relatively little interference from the great powers - Argentina and Brazil being a case in point. To the extent that I was familiar with such events, or that they were reported in the UK, relatively little importance would have been placed on local agency with the emphasis on intervention by one, or both, of the great powers. In 1973, Billy Graham, “America’s Pastor,” held his largest ever “crusade.” But he was not, as one might expect, in the American heartland, but in South Korea. Why there? Race for Revivalseeks not only to answer that question, but to retell the story of modern American evangelicalism through its relationship with South Korea. With the outbreak of the Korean War, the first “hot” war of the Cold War era, a new generation of white fundamentalists and neo-evangelicals forged networks with South Koreans that helped turn evangelical America into an empire. This is simply a must-read for anyone who wants a better understanding of the world today. Despite having lived through the Cold War -- and as someone who probably pays closer attention to current events, world politics, and history than your average American -- there was a lot here that I did already know but so much more that I did not. In the Bloomberg interview Katusa revealed he manages a Canadian Hedge Fund; he’s involved in shale oil, copper and uranium; so his money in “on the line”.

Yale, Οντ Άρνε Βέσταντ με τίτλο Ο ψυχρός πόλεμος – Μια παγκόσμια ιστορία (μτφρ. Δέσποινα Κωνσταντινάκου, εκδ. Πατάκη). Ο Βέσταντ εστιάζει στις συνέπειες του φαινομένου και σε όλα τα γεγονότα, τα οποία αποτέλεσαν μέρος του, όχι μόνο στην Ευρώπη αλλά σε όλον τον κόσμο. Το συμπέρασμα είναι ότι ο Ψυχρός Πόλεμος υπήρξε ένα γεγονός μεγίστης σημασίας με συνέπειες που είχαν τεράστια επιρροή σε πολλές χώρες και οι οποίες καθίστανται ανιχνεύσιμες μέχρι και σήμερα. The Velvet Revolution in November 1989 brought about the collapse of the authoritarian communist regime in what was then Czechoslovakia, marking the beginning of the country’s journey towards democracy. Velvet Revolutionsexamines the values of everyday citizens who lived under so-called real socialism, as well as how their values changed after the 1989 collapse. With an attempt to describe and explain events over more than half a century of modern history, it is no surprise that this book leaves me with an aching head a sense of the messy complexity of the recent past. But in some sense I find that reassuring. I knew nothing about the Cold War before reading this book, and if I came away from it feeling like I understood it, I would probably have arrived at the wrong approach and incorrect conclusions. However, despite the book's overall even-handedness, it is still written from a certain (implicitly social democratic) Western perspective, which influences the narrative somewhat, perhaps downplaying the barbarity of imperialism at times.Westad's book is an erudite, mostly objective view of this tumultous period of recent world history. He helps us make sense of the key drivers shaping American and Soviet policymakers during these five decades of post-war history. Too much time spent in the heads of characters which delays the action. Though it helps in setting out the story, it restrains the story from flowing on. What most interests me about Westad's perspective is the constant suggestion that economic, political, or social events from so many different settings can provide useful context to the dual struggle. There are broad chapters about Lain America, Africa, and he even makes the suggestion that a major turning point in the war was the end of the Estado Novo regime Portugal and its transition to democracy - which presaged a further wave of decolonization and a turn away from authoritarian states more generally. He suggests that the dimensions of the Cold War - a turn towards and then away from relaxed relations - was because of broad changes elsewhere, with the rise of East Asia and a resurgence of religious fundamentalism in West Asia. The facts are clear enough for the general reader, but even someone who has read more would be interested in the connections that he approaches.

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