Strategic Choices for Major Powers to Cope with Third-Country Crises:A Case Study of the Cold War Between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1963
In the context of frequent major powers'strategic bargaining and regional con-flicts,how competing major powers respond to third-country crises deserves special atten-tion.In general,major powers would regard political turmoil within third countries and mil-itary conflicts between third countries as opportunities to enhance their own power;they would send signals to their rival through their responses to crises;or they may learn about the resolve and intent of each other through the way their rival responds to crises.In order to manage conflicts,major powers would try to reach an agreement on spheres of influence,but such an agreement cannot fully constrain the behavior of major powers.The author uses the sphere-of-influence agreement as an important independent variable to propose a theo-retical hypothesis,and tests this hypothesis by examining the case of the Cold War compe-tition between the United States and the Soviet Union from 1946 to 1963.This case shows that before the United States and the Soviet Union reached an agreement on their spheres of influence,they would frequently intervene in third-country crises in Eurasia and try to form alliances in order to prevent their competitors from taking advantage of the incident to ex-pand their power.After the United States and the Soviet Union reached an agreement on spheres of influence,the United States adopted a neutral attitude toward crises that oc-curred within the Soviet Union's sphere of influence,while both sides continued to under-take intervention actions outside their agreed spheres of influence.In fact,since the 20th century,when the notion of sovereign equality became a prevailing international norm,spheres-of-influence agreements have lost legitimacy and are hence not the optimal solution for great powers to manage their competition.
major power competitionthird partiesregional conflictsspheres of influ-enceUS-Soviet Cold War
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