Book Review: The Rise and Fall of Détente – American Foreign Policy and the Transformation of the Cold War by Jussi M. Hanhimäki
The Rise and Fall of Détente – American Foreign Policy and the Transformation of the Cold War by Jussi M. Hanhimäki. Washington, DC: Potomac Books 2013. 275 pp., $24.95 paperback. 978 1597970761
The first two post-1989 decades were the era of American “hyperpower”. With no state able to match neither its “hard” nor its “soft” power, the United States was the global hegemon – albeit not alwasy wielding its influence in a very clever way. Gradually though, China is expanding its global economic reach, laying the basis for an increased role in the world arena. If the international system is slowly reverting to bipolarity, it might be time to look back at when it was last so: the Cold War. Even though history's lessons should alwasy be taken with caution, 45 years of experience in dealing with a mighty peer are worth studying. One could do worse than to read Jussi M. Hanhimäki's The Rise and Fall of Détente, which as the title suggests deals with one of the key periods of the Cold War, the one stretching roughly from 1963 to 1979.
After a chapter dealing with the “roots of détente”, the book's engaging analysis begins with the consideration of Richard Nixon's presidency. Having been the author of The Flawed Architect: Henry Kissinger and American Foreign Policy (OUP 2004) Hanhimäki is most competent on the years coinciding with Kissinger's tenure as National Security Adviser and Secretary of State, to which three of the eight chapters are dedicated – understandably as this was also the high-water mark of détente. Two more chapters deal with the Carter administration. In these pages, readers will mostly find a competent but not very critical exposition of the various initiatives, treaties, secret trips and difficult negotiations which characterized the period, written in a clear and precise prose. Because the book is part of a series on American foreign policy, this is where the focus of the author mainly lies. The concluding chapter looks back at détente and assesses its results, both in the short and in the long term. The author argues that détente was just a change of tactics on the part of the United States, while containment of the Soviet Union “remained the central goal of U.S. foreign policy” (p. 147). Finally, Hanhimäki points to “the paradox of détente”, namely the fact that “détente ultimately and ironically discredited the system it was meant to stabilize” (p. 150), by introducing elements (such as the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe) that undermined the foundation of the international system. As for those processes started during the period of détente that are still relevant to the world today, the author names two: the opening up of China to the world and the introduction of human security – through the CSCE – as an important element of international security.
In the second part, many interesting primary sources from the period are presented with a brief introduction to situate them in their context. Going beyond the easier choice of speeches and treaties, the collection also presents documents which shed a light on the inner workings of governments, such as Kissinger's memorandum to Ford on the signing of the CSCE or the minutes of the NSC's Meeting on the Horn of Africa in March 1978. This section will be very useful to students beginning to deal with primary sources. Given the nature of the book a bibliographic essay would have been a welcome addition.
Hanhimäki is a professor of international history at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies in Geneva. His teaching responsibilities have probably made him notice that there was no comprehensive, accessible and updated introduction to the détente period, and with this book he has filled the gap. Given the recent (and continuing) declassification of documents from the 1970s, détente is increasingly the focus of many international historians. Students willing to delve into this literature will find in Hanhimäki's book an useful and clear general map. Readers wanting to familiarize themselves with the topic of détente would do well to start from here. The book however has less to offer those with a good background on the relevant period.
Paolo Volpato is a freelance writer and translator. He holds an MA in History of International Relations from the LSE and an MA in International Relations from Università Roma Tre.
