The Rise and Fall of Dtente

In keeping with the other titles in Robert J. McMahons Issues in the History of American Foreign Relations series, Jussi M. Hanhimki offers students and scholars a survey of the evolution of American foreign policy during a key period in recent history, the era of superpower dtente and global transformation in the 1960s and 1970s. Describing dtente as not only an era but also a strategy of waging the Cold War, Hanhimki examines the reasons that led to the rise of dtente, explores the highlights of the eras reduced East-West tensions, and explains the causes of dtentes demise. He addresses many questions: What were the long-term and short-term causes of dtente? Was it a policy invented in the United States or adopted under pressure from abroad? Did it represent a radical break with the pasta move from idealism to realismor was it simply an attempt to prolong the Cold War bipolarity within the international system? Was dtente a policy that grew from weakness and doubt (caused particularly by the Vietnam War)? What were its main achievements and shortcomings? What led to its end? In conclusion, he evaluates the role of dtente in the dismantling of the Cold War international system.