Book Review: U.S.S.R. and Eastern Europe: World Communism, Nationalism and Communism
| Author | H. Gordon Skilling |
| Date | 01 December 1965 |
| Published date | 01 December 1965 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070206502000430 |
| Subject Matter | Book Review |
558
INTERNATIONAL
JOURNAL
Dr.
Patijn
labels
the
unfinished
task
of
the
reunification
of
Ger-
many
as
the
most
important
and
dangerous political
problem
of
the
future
in
Europe.
He
deplores
the
difficult
choices
with
which
its
allies
are
facing West
Germany-choices
between
France
and the
United
States,
and
between
a
new
nationalism
and
a
European
supra-national-
ism. He
stresses
that
a
united
Europe
and Atlantic
co-operation
both
depend
on
Germany having equality
of
status
with
France
and
the
United
Kingdom-an
idea
which
is
echoed
by
other
contributors
in
other
contexts.
The
question
of
nuclear
arms
and
nuclear
sharing
receives
due
attention.
Colonel
Dishoeck
concludes
that
no
essential
change
in
the
military
structure
of
NATO
is
warranted
and,
while
arguing
for attempts
to
agree
within
the
alliance
on
a
strategic
concept,
asks
why
Europe
should
choose
to
exchange
nuclear
dependence
on
the
United
States
for
nuclear
dependence
on
France.
Heldring
suggests
that
Russia
is
un-
likely to
feel
secure
with
a European
deterrent
which
it
would
be
bound
to
see
as
the
equivalent
of
a
German
nuclear
threat.
A
basic
dilemma
is
reflected
in
many
of
these papers.
The
writers
desire
an integrated
Europe
although,
at
the
same time,
they
fear
it
might
weaken
Atlantic
cohesion.
Toronto
RONALD
S.
RPTCIIE
U.S.S.R.
and
Eastern
Europe
WORLD
COMMUNISM.
The
Disintegration
of
a
Secular
Faith.
By
Richard
Lowenthal.
1964.
(New
York:
Toronto: Oxford
University
Press.
xxii,
296pp.
$6.75)
NATIONALISM
AND
COMMUNISM.
Essays,
1946-1963.
By
Hugh
Seton-
Watson.
1964.
(London:
Methuen.
Toronto:
Ryerson.
x,
252pp.
$7.95)
The
study
of
international
communism
has
in
recent
years
become
almost
a
discipline
in
its
own
right,
with its
own
distinctive
subject
matter
and
even
its
own
methods.
Its practitioners,
including
both
scholarly
journalists
and
journalistic
scholars,
treat,
as
their
oyster,
the entire
world
communist
movement,
as well
as
its
component
parts
in
all
countries.
As
that
movement
has
become
less
monolithic
and
more
fragmented,
they
have increasingly
focussed
their
analysis
on
the interplay
of
nationalism
and
communism.
Richard
Lowenthal,
dis-
tinguished
German-born
British
journalist,
now
professor
at
the
Free
University
in Berlin,
and Hugh
Seton-Watson,
able
British scholar
of
Eastern
Europe
and
Russia,
of
the
University
of
London,
are
well-
known
both
among
their
fellow
scholars
and
the
readers
of
serious
newspapers
and
journals for
their
contributions to
this theme.
Each
has
now
published
selected
articles
in
book
form.
Such
a
publication
is
well
justified
if
the
collection
brings
together,
in
coherent
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