Jak nepsat o Brežněvově doktríně
Review: How Not to Write about the Brezhnev Doctrine

Summary/Abstract: Ouimet, Matthew J. The Rise and Fall of the Brezhnev Doctrine in Soviet Foreign Policy. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003, 309 pp. A political analyst of the US Department of State, the author Matthew J. Ouimet conceives the Brezhnev Doctrine as a qualitatively new phenomenon in Soviet Foreign policy, and dates its demise to the summer of 1981, when the Soviet brass allegedly rose up against the idea of Soviet intervention in Poland. The author's thesis is, however, based on a single piece of testimony and his sources are generally flimsy. The reviewer also reproaches him for an unbalanced presentation, a black-and-white view, and coming up with historical causes based on how events turned out. The whole book, the reviewer argues, is a lost opportunity and a negative example of a certain kind of work in historiography.

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