Disengagement in East Europe
| Published date | 01 September 1959 |
| Author | Adam Bromke |
| Date | 01 September 1959 |
| DOI | 10.1177/002070205901400302 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Disengagement
in
East
Europe
ADAM
BROMKE*
N
the
current
debate
on
the
various
proposals
for
disengage-
ment
in
Central
Europe
one
factor
seems
to
be
largely neg-
lected.
This is
the
attitude
towards
these
plans
on
the
part
of
concerned
nations
in
the
Soviet
bloc.
Yet
it
is
certainly
a
very
potent
factor,
at
least
as
important
as
the
attitude
of
the
Ger-
mans.
For
in
the
same
way
as
the
West
must
take
into
considera-
tion
the
potential
effects
of
disengagement
in Germany,
the
Soviet
Union
has
to take
into
account
its
possible consequences
in
East
Europe.
Disengagement
could be
acceptable
to
the
Russians
providing
the
Eastern
European
countries
would
adopt
friendly
or
at
least
strictly neutral
positions
towards
the
Soviet
Union.
As much
as
Russia
could
not
accede
to
the
unification
of
Germany
within
the
Western
alliance,
she
would
not
agree
to
the restoration
in
East
Europe
of
what
was
described
in
the
inter-war
period
as
the
cordon
sanitaire.
Thus
in
the
last
resort
the
Soviet
attitude
towards
disengagement
to
a
considerable
extent
would
depend
on
its
relations,
within
such
a
frame
of reference,
with
the
smaller
nations
in
East
Europe.
Among
the
many
writings
on
disengagement
the
most
exhaus-
tive
discussion
of
its
implications
in
East
Europe
is offered
in
Michael
Howard's
Disengagement
in Europe
(London,
1958).
The
conclusions
reached by
Mr.
Howard
are
on
the
whole
dis-
couraging.
He
lists
three
different
areas
of
concern
which
would
tend
to
prevent
Soviet
withdrawal
from
East
Europe:
economic,
*
Dr.
Bromke
is
a
member
of
the
Department
of Economics
and
Political
Science,
McGill
University.
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