Between Communist GiantsNikhil Chakravartty SOVIET AND CHINESE INFLUENCE IN THE THIRD WORLD Edited by Alvin Z. Rubinstein Praeger Publishers, 1975, 231, Price Not Stated VOLUME I NUMBER 4 October - December 1976 International developments have been unfolding with such
rapidity in the second half of the present century that any attempt to survey
them is in danger of being outdated between the time of its writing and its
presentation to the reader.
This is particularly true of the Third World in
which phenomenal changes have been taking place before our very eyes. The
volume under review suffers from a further handicap in so far as the Chinese
influence in the world outside can hardly be examined in isolation from the
happenings at home which during the last five years have been subjected in a
very large measure to the overpowering personalized politics around the father
figure of Mao Tse-tung. The last phase of the Great Helmsman’s colourful career
lacked that clear direction which was so perceptible in the earlier periods,
of the Chinese Revolution.
Rubinstein in opening the discussion has warned
that ‘there is clearly no Rosetta stone for deciphering influence’ and has
brought out the difficulties in measuring any country's influence over another.
However, adherence to certain broad criteria has helped the contributors to the
volume to reach certain significant as well as interesting conclusions: for
instance, the appraisal of Soviet influence in India by William Barnds makes it
clear that while it is difficult to describe Soviet goals ‘and especially their
priorities’, Moscow’s success in this direction is due to the fact that Soviet
and Indian interests were similar rather than because Moscow influenced New
Delhi. Barnds makes an extensive assessment covering diplomatic (with special
reference to Tashkent), political, commercial, economic and military spheres.
Inevitably he discusses the Soviet concept of a collective security system for
Asia. He comes to the significant conclusion that ‘the major impact of Soviet
efforts in India has been to enable New Delhi to pursue more effectively
policies it wanted to follow in any case’—a rather surprising rebuff to those
in India and abroad who have denounced the Indo-Soviet Treaty as having
mortgaged Indian interests to Moscow, a rebuff administered by one who has served
the CIA for fourteen years, as Barnds’s record shows.
Unfortunately, none of the contributions takes
up a parallel study of Peking’s influence in India. However, Rubinstein himself
makes an observation which is worth quoting: ‘In the early 1960s Peking embarked
on what appeared to be a major effort to ... Table of Contents >> |