The Islamic Threat to the Soviet State by Alexandre Bennigsen; Marie BroxupReview by: John C. CampbellForeign Affairs, Vol. 61, No. 4 (Spring, 1983), pp. 983-984Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20041605 .

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RECENT BOOKS 983

MANAGING U.S.-SOVIET RIVALRY: PROBLEMS OF CRISIS PREVEN TION. By Alexander L. George. Boulder (Colo.): Westview Press, 1983, 415

pp. $30.00 (paper, $11.75). What went wrong with d?tente is examined in the key area of "crisis preven

tion" (as distinct from "crisis management") by Alexander George with contri butions by a number of well-qualified colleagues. In general, the book represents a searching inquiry into the problem of preventing and containing superpower conflict in the Third World. In particular, it presents well-tempered accounts of

specific cases such as the Middle East, Angola, the Horn, and Cuba. George himself and G. W. Breslauer are especially good in discussing the balance between

competition and cooperation, the choices facing the two powers, and the fre

quently cited but infrequently defined "rules of the game."

TRACKS OF THE BEAR: SOVIET IMPRINTS IN THE SEVENTIES. By Edgar O'Ballance. Novato (Cal.): Presidio Press, 1982, 240 pp. $14.95.

Edgar O'Ballance has written an impressive number of specialized books, some of them excellent, on the small and middle-sized wars which have punctuated the years since World War II. In this larger effort, a study of Soviet grand strategy in the 1970s and of the "imprint" made on a host of countries around the globe, as well as on the military balance and on international negotiations, he is less successful. His general argument?that the Soviets made extraordinary gains in their pursuit of global hegemony, aided by the West's inexcusable weakness and appeasement?has some foundation in fact; but the book merely brings together already familiar facts and at times is careless with them or overstates their meaning.

SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY AND EAST-WEST RELATIONS. Edited by Roger E. Kanet. Elmsford (N.Y.): Pergamon Press, 1982, 197 pp. $25.00

The title is a catch-all for a group of papers delivered at the World Congress for Soviet and East European Studies hel i in 1980. In most of them the authors

write along lines similar to what they have written elsewhere (e.g., George Kennan on the nuclear peril, Gerhard Wettig on strategic problems in Europe, Heinz Timmermann on Eurocommunism), but the general quality is high and the book gains by the wide international diversity of its authors.

THE "SCIENTIFIC-TECHNOLOGICAL REVOLUTION" AND SOVIET FOREIGN POLICY. By Erik F. Hoffmann and Robbin F. Laird. Elmsford (N.Y.): Pergamon Press, 1982, 256 pp. $29.50.

The authors have done a service in ploughing through the vast quantity of

writing by Soviet analysts and theorists on the so-called scientific and technolog ical revolution. The reader may risk drowning, but the subject has inherent interest in the light it throws on such concepts as the general capitalist crisis,

d?tente, the international division of labor, and the correlation of forces, which are directly related to Soviet foreign policy. The book shows that Soviet thought in this field is not monolithic; there are differences of view and of emphasis

which highlight basic choices, some not yet made, for the leadership.

THE ISLAMIC THREAT TO THE SOVIET STATE. By Alexandre Bennigsen and Marie Broxup. New York: St.Martin's, 1983, 170 pp. $27.50.

Alexandre Bennigsen is probably the West's foremost expert on the Muslims of the U.S.S.R. He and his co-author have distilled years of study into a short

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984 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

book packed with factual material placed in historical perspective. The salient fact is the indestructibility of Islamic culture and its resistance both to traditional Russian imperialism and to Soviet ideology. They show how Soviet power, now

dominant, is being weakened by trends within the U.S.S.R. and beyond its borders in the Middle East (especially Afghanistan and Iran since 1978), and find an ultimate violent crisis inescapable.

MEMOIRS. By Petro Grigorenko. New York: Norton, 1983, 480 pp. $19.95. The unique story of a Soviet general who took the road of open opposition to

the Soviet regime, of which the outside world caught occasional glimpses in the

press over the years, is now recounted by the general himself. That it is very much a personal story rather than a political tract adds to its interest. He describes

in detail his disillusionment with Stalin, his challenge to Khrushchev in 1961, his

"guerrilla war" with the KGB, and his experiences in the insane asylums and

prisons. Like his life, the book is disarmingly honest and revealing?and sane.

EAST-WEST RELATIONS: PROSPECTS FOR THE 1980s. Edited by Giu seppe Schiavone. New York: St. Martin's, 1982, 217 pp. $32.50.

Papers presented at a conference organized by the De Gasperi Institute of

European Studies in Rome. The contributors are Western and Eastern Europeans leavened by the presence of one American and one Japanese. The papers, though too brief to provide much substance, give evidence of a generally shared hope of advancing and deepening economic ties between the two halves of Europe, including formal agreements between the EEC and CMEA. It is an interesting

point, considering the fact that the conference met in 1980 under the impact of the Soviet move into Afghanistan and the world reaction to it.

CRISIS IN THE EAST EUROPEAN ECONOMY. Edited by Jan Drewnowski.

New York: St. Martin's, 1982, 177 pp. $22.50. Several professional economists describe the "Polish disease" and consider

whether and how it will infect the rest of Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union.

The essays reflect both their expertise in this field and their uncertainty over

the causes and cures of the present crisis of zero growth. Peter Wiles's introduc

tion and his paper on the U.S.S.R. are spiced with his customary pepper and salt, and the other essays deal specifically with Poland and Romania, and more

generally with the rest.

KRISE IN POLEN: VOM SOMMER 80 ZUM WINTER 81. Edited by Herman Volle and Wolfgang Wagner. Bonn: Verlag F?r Internationale Politik, 1982, 336 pp. STRIKE FOR FREEDOM!: THE STORY OF LECH WALESA AND POLISH SOLIDARITY. By Robert Eringer. New York: Dodd, Mead, 1982, 177 pp. $11.95.

Krise in Polen is a collection of articles and documents reprinted from Europa Archiv. The articles provide a full and informative account by Germany's best

experts on Poland, and the documents constitute a rich reference work. The book by Eringer is a sketchy, popular, though not inaccurate survey of that

period, with Walesa as hero.

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