Beschreibung
In the history of the Cold War and détente, reference is seldom made to
the international relations of the small states. This volume undertakes
the task of reassessing comparatively, on the basis of newly declassified
sources from Western and formerly Eastern archives, the preconditions and
various developments of bilateral relations across the Iron Curtain,
between the USSR, Eastern Europe, and neutral but capitalist Austria.
While the Soviet attitude saw neutrality as a valuable model for Western
Europe and Austria as a showcase for the “peaceful coexistence” between
East and West, this small country and its communist neighbors developed
their own kind of Ostpolitik long before the bigger political actors had
ushered in European détente.
