Margins for Manoeuvre in Cold War Europe

Laurien Crump is Associate Professor in Contemporary European History at Utrecht University, the Netherlands. She has published widely on multilateral relations in the Cold War on both sides of the Iron Curtain, based on multi-archival research in eight European countries.Susanna Erlandsson is Postdoctoral Researcher at the Department of History at Uppsala University, Sweden. She has published on Swedish and Dutch security policies in the 1940s, on personal trust in diplomatic relations and on the role of gender in diplomatic history.

Overall, the volume covers an impressive variety of topics that demonstrate the multiplicity of means that small states employed to challenge Cold War power relations. Thus, the high degree of extensive research makes this book a must-read for any scholar interested in Cold War history or the history of small states.- Felicitas Hartung, University of California, San Diego, H-Net Reviews

• Introduction: Smaller Powers in Cold War Europe; Part I: Manoeuvring through Multilateralism; 1. Challenging the Superpower Straightjacket (1965–1975): Multilateralism as an Instrument of Smaller Powers; 2. Multilateralism as Small Power Strategy (1950–1952): The Netherlands, the Benelux and the European Defence Community; 3.Small States, Alliances and the Margins for Manoeuvre in the Cold War: Sweden, Norway and the CSCE; 4. A Critical Ally (1949–1977): The Dutch Social Democrats, Spain and NATO; Part II: The Margins of Superpower Rule; 5. Manoeuvring into the Soviet Market: Polish and Finnish Eastern Trade Practices during the Cold War; 6. The Imperative of Opening to the West and the Impact of the 1968 Crisis: Bulgaria’s Cooperation with Denmark and West Germany in the 1960s; 7. Americanising the Belgian Civilising Mission (1941–1961): The Belgian Information Center in New York and the Campaign to cast the Belgian Civilising Mission as part of the Point IV Programme; 8. A Gas Giant in a Small State’s Clothes (1981–1982): A Political Economy Analysis of the Dutch Margins for Manoeuvre During the Urengoy Pipeline Crisis; Part III: Identity as an Instrument; 9. Neutrality as an Instrument of Small State Manoeuvring and the Globalisation of Neutrality in the Cold War; 10, Denuclearisation and Regional Cooperation: Romania’s Tactical Approaches to Escaping Bloc Rigidities; 11. Transitional Margins to Re-Join the West: Spain’s Dual Strategy of Democratisation and Europeanisation; 12. ‘At last, our voice is heard in the world’: Greece and the Six Nation Initiative during the Euromissile Crisis; Conclusion: Shedding a New Light on Cold War Europe