by A. G. NOORANI
The book contains, among other subjects, erudite essays on the Sino-Soviet alliance and Gorbachev’s East Asia policy during 1985-1991.
Indian writers on international affairs have been remiss in their neglect of the stupendous achievements of the Cold War International History Project (CWIHP). Established by the Woodrow Wilson International Centre for Scholars, Washington, DC, in 1991, it actively supports “the full and prompt release of historical materials by governments” on all sides of the Cold War. It is unlikely to receive the slightest help in this noble enterprise from India, easily the most illiberal state in the entire democratic world in its archives policy. It is abetted by historians who do not wage a campaign for its reversal but content themselves with brave, high-sounding resolutions at the annual History Congress.
The CWIHP publishes a CWIHP Bulletin and Working Papers, all based on archival disclosures in the United States, Russia, China and a few other countries. It is directed by Dr Christian F. Ostermann. Anyone who reads its publications will be struck by the light they throw on China’s relations with India, including its Soviet dimension, and the course of the Cold War. That, of course, is a subject in which we are not interested, self-obsessed as we are. Indian writing and thinking view international relations through the prism of perceived Indian interests, exclusively.
Frontline for more