Abstract
It was an eventful twelve years, with the world and its power relations undergoing vast geopolitical and geoeconomic convulsions. The most important event, of course, was the collapse of the Soviet empire and communism. As George Kennan had predicted four decades earlier, communism and the Russian empire were doomed and would eventually crumble from their inability to develop a comfortable or meaningful economic, social, or political life for those under its sway. The western industrial democracies could accelerate that demise by achieving a virtuous cycle of economic development and political stability, by containing any Soviet psychological and political efforts to increase their influence in the west, and by negotiating constructively with Moscow on outstanding issues. This selective containment strategy would hold the Soviets at arm’s length as the internal rot did its work.
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Notes
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© 1996 William R. Nester
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Nester, W.R. (1996). Japan Triumphant: The Reagan and Bush Era, 1981–93. In: Power across the Pacific. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230378759_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230378759_10
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