Poland and European East-West Cooperation in the 1970s

The Opening Up
1. Auflage 2023
ISBN: 978-1-032-39216-5
Verlag: Routledge

Buch, Englisch, 246 Seiten, Format (B × H): 161 mm x 240 mm, Gewicht: 540 g

Reihe: Cold War History

This book offers an international reading of the Polish socialist regime’s history in the 1970s, and its opening up to the West.

It bridges Poland’s socialist domestic history with critical developments of the global and European 1970s, including détente in the Cold War, western European integration, and globalisation. In this period of international transformations, socialist Poland under Edward Gierek's leadership multiplied its economic and political contacts with capitalist countries, especially western Europe, and became a leader of East-West cooperation among Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and Warsaw Pact members. Relying on sources from public and corporate archives in five different European states, the book demonstrates both that the global political and economic transformations of that period were critical for the decision-making process in Poland and, moreover, that the national socialist elites participated in shaping these transformations. By looking at the goals and expectations of the Polish socialist elites and their practices of political and economic exchanges with western Europe, the book explains the logic which drove the socialist regime into entanglement with the West. As is shown here, this entanglement proved inextricable and critical for the socialist regime's failure and Poland’s political and economic future.

This book will be of much interest to students of European history, cold war studies, socialism studies and International Relations.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate, Professional, and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Komornicka, Aleksandra

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Militärgeschichte
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Militärwesen Nationale und Internationale Sicherheits- und Verteidigungspolitik
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Internationale Beziehungen Diplomatie
• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Weltgeschichte & Geschichte einzelner Länder und Gebietsräume Europäische Geschichte
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Friedens- und Konfliktforschung
• Sozialwissenschaften Politikwissenschaft Politische Kultur Staatsbürgerkunde, Staatsbürgerschaft, Zivilgesellschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction  Part I: The rise and fall of the national strategy of the 1970s 1. Towards the big opening, the late 1960s 2. Bold and ambitious: a new national strategy, 1971-2 3. Perfect timing? 1973-5 4. Defending the status quo, 1976-80  Part II: Licence agreements with Western European companies  5. Prosperity, progress, profit, and peace: the goals and expectations of the licence policy 6. The deal of the decade: Italy, Fiat, and the production of passenger cars 7. Cementing political rapprochement: France, Berliet, and new city buses 8. Facing electronic giants: the FRG and audio equipment 9. Gains and losses of the licence policy Epilogue and conclusion

Über Autor(innen)

Aleksandra Komornicka is an assistant professor at Maastricht University and has a PhD from the European University Institute. Her research focuses on the international and economic history of post-war Europe in particular on the Cold War, European integration and Poland.