Description

This thesis examines the relationship between intervention by the US and the USSR in client-state wars which occur in locales where the balance of Soviet-American interests is either disputed or uncertain, and superpower security in the era of stable nuclear deterrence.

In the first part of the study, a model of superpower intervention in client-state wars is established. The model consists of four propositions which deal with the relationship between intervention, political and/or territorial change, and superpower security; the occurrence of the phenomena of non- and asymmetrical interventions where reciprocal intervention offers the more rational course of action; and the notion of crisis as a mechanism by which the United States and the Soviet Union could resolve regional disputes peacefully.

The second part of the work is an empirical analysis of the model of intervention expounded in the first part. Three case studies of asymmetrical, double, and unilateral superpower Interventions in grey area wars are employed in order to explain the factors which determine the levels of intervention by the US and the USSR in client-state conflicts, and to examine the circumstances under which crisis manipulation is used, and when it is most effective. The case studies are of the Korean war of 1950-1953, the Arab-Israeli war of 1973, and the Ethio-Somali war of 1977-1978, that is, conflicts which took place at different stages in the development of United States-Soviet relations.

The third part of the study consists of the concluding chapter. This reviews the relationship between intervention, superpower security, and peaceful change against the background of the empirical analysis.