End of the Cold War and Promises

0580161 - ÚSD 2024 RIV CZ eng R - Book Review
Studený, Luboš
End of the Cold War and Promises.
[BARTEL, F.: The Triumph of Broken Promises. The End of the Cold War and the Rise of Neoliberalism. Cambridge, 2022. 440 s.]. Soudobé dějiny. Ústav pro soudobé dějiny AV ČR, v. v. i. Roč. 30, č. 3 (2023), s. 873-880. ISSN 1210-7050
R&D Projects: GA ČR(CZ) GA20-23131S
Institutional support: RVO:68378114
Keywords : Cold War * neoliberalism * perestroika
OECD category: History (history of science and technology to be 6.3, history of specific sciences to be under the respective headings)
Method of publishing: Open access
https://sd.usd.cas.cz/pdfs/sod/2023/03/08.pdf

The Triumph of Broken Promises tells the story of how the pressure to break promises spurred the end of the Cold War. In the West, neoliberalism provided Western leaders like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher with the political and ideological tools to shut down industries, impose austerity, and favor the interests of capital over labor. But in Eastern Europe, revolutionaries like Lech Walesa in Poland resisted any attempt at imposing market discipline. Mikhail Gorbachev tried in vain to reform the Soviet system, but the necessary changes ultimately presented too great a challenge. Faced with imposing economic discipline antithetical to communist ideals, Soviet-style governments found their legitimacy irreparably damaged. But in the West, politicians could promote austerity as an antidote to the excesses of ideological opponents, setting the stage for the rise of the neoliberal global economy.
Permanent Link: https://hdl.handle.net/11104/0348923