I’ve made this comment in print about one book and I’m soon going to make it about another out loud: I find it strange to encounter histories of the 20th century…
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in which there are Cold War liberals without a Cold War, in which Vietnam is a place but the USSR is not, in which there is anti-Communism including McCarthyism but no Communism.
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Replying to @jtlevy
Honestly, I think American foreign policy of the last century & more is best seen as long project of global hegemony with the chief target being the South. The Cold War was a subset of that. It's telling that end of USSR led to no reduction of NATO, military budgets etc.
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Replying to @HeerJeet
That could be an interesting conclusion to argue for but as an unargued-for historiographical assumption it's something different. Also, US military spending fell by *half* as a % of GDP from the late 80s to the late 90s.
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Replying to @jtlevy
Fair enough there was a decline in 1990s. But I'd insist fact that current spending is in ballpark with Cold War era shapes how we understand the past: that the project of USA hegemony over global south was far more important than ideological contest with USSR.
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I respect you Jeet but disagree vehemently with every single assertion in your tweet.
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Replying to @dandrezner @jtlevy
It's a controversial point! But I think a case can be made for it and it's an idea that one can see bubbling around in recentish scholarship.
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I’d like to see you show your work regarding the claim that we are now spending as much on defense as during the Cold War.
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Why bother about figures when you have nice theories?pic.twitter.com/arQ5UEoy9q
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The total American economy is much larger now than late 1970s -- so fact that recent peak in 2010 was same per capita as late 1970s is suggestive. I don't see keeping military at same absolute size as a reduction.
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Military strength is not absolute but relative. The countries that USA wants to dominate(?), grew in size and military spending also. Have you considered the military spending of the global south?
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