The Palgrave Handbook of Non-State Actors in East-West Relations - by Péter Marton & Gry Thomasen & Csaba Békés & András Rácz (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

The Handbook introduces to readers (accessibly for specialist and non-specialist scholars, students and layman audiences) the diverse universe of non-state actors (NSAs) that have played or are currently playing a significant role in the context of East-West relations (from 1945 to the present). With a view to the oft-seen political debates about which non- state actors may be independent or controlled by particular states, and in what ways they may be useful or harmful to the interests of particular actors, this volume is interested in analysing and assessing the relationship of NSAs to key state actors in the context of the politics of East-West relations. Key state actors in this context include more than just the United States (on the one hand) and the Soviet Union or Russia (on the other hand). To offer a structured overview, the volume explores possible typologies of the relationships conceivable between NSAs and states. New concepts and organising principles are presented, to support a process-tracing analysis of the evolution of proxy ships, partnerships and other types of connections between states and non-state actors. Degrees, sources and types of control and influence are considered. Further, the Handbook's chapters also examine NSAs' impact on the dynamics of interstate conflict and cooperation in the East-West dimension. The systematic examination of the relationship between states and NSAs in East-West relations proposed here is the first undertaking of its kind. International scholarship in political science and strategic analyses have so far neglected to develop an analytical framework and a truly nuanced understanding that could capture the intricate and multilevel relationships that exists between NSAs and states in this context.

About the Author

Péter Marton holds a PhD in International Relations and is currently Associate Professor at Corvinus University in Budapest, Hungary, and Adjunct Professor at McDaniel College Budapest. His fields of research include Security Studies, Foreign Policy Analysis and Global Public Health. He has published, inter alia, in Defence Studies, Communist and Post-Communist Studies, the Journal of Soviet and Post-Soviet Politics and Society, the Journal of Contemporary African Studies and New Perspectives. He is co-editor of the Palgrave Encyclopedia of Global Security Studies.

Gry Thomasen is Research Director at BASIC (British American Security Information Council). Dr Thomasen holds a PhD in Cold War history from the University of Copenhagen and was awarded a postdoc grant from the Carlsberg Foundation to undertake research into nuclear non-proliferation history at the Danish Institute for International Studies. Dr Thomasen has previously been Visiting Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Cold War History Research Centre in Budapest and a Visiting Researcher at the Centre for Science and Security Studies, King's College, London. Most recently, she has published in the International Journal, International History Review and Marine Policy. She has also authored numerous policy reports and policy briefs providing advice to governments.

Csaba BÉKÉS is a Professor of History at Corvinus University of Budapest and a Research Professor Emeritus in the Centre of Social Sciences, Budapest. He is the founding director of the Cold War History Research Center, Budapest (www.coldwar.hu) and a recurring visiting professor at Columbia University, New York. His main field of research is Cold War history, East-West relations, the history of détente, Hungarian foreign policy after World War II and the role of the East Central European states in the Cold War. He has widely published on these topics in Hungarian, English and German; he is also a contributor of the three volume The Cambridge History of the Cold War (2010). He is a member of the editorial boards of the Journal of Cold War Studies and Cold War History. His numerous books include The 1956 Hungarian Revolution. A history in documents. (Co-ed.) (2002); Hungary and the Warsaw Pact, 1954-1989; Soviet Occupation of Romania, Hungary, and Austria 1944/45-1948/49 (Co-ed.) (2015); Hungary's Cold War: International Relations from the End of World War Two to the Fall of the Soviet Union. (2022).

András Rácz is Senior Research Fellow at the Berlin-based German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP). Dr. Rácz holds a Ph.D. in Modern History from the Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest, Hungary. Before joining the DGAP in 2019, he was Associate Professor at the Pázmány Péter Catholic University in Budapest and Security Policy Analyst of the policy think tank Political Capital. Between 2014-2016, he was a Senior Research Fellow of the Finnish Institute of International Affairs in Helsinki. Earlier, he worked inter alia as senior research fellow at the former Hungarian Institute of InternationalAffairs and as visiting researcher at the Transatlantic Academy of the German Marshall Fund in Washington D.C. His fields of expertise include the security and defence policy issues of Russia and the post-Soviet region, as well as relations of Russia and Central-Europe, in addition to the foreign policy of Hungary.