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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Soviet Union in Africa: Realities and Limits |
Author: | Serfaty, Simon |
Year: | 1983 |
Periodical: | South Africa International |
Volume: | 14 |
Issue: | 1 |
Period: | July |
Pages: | 311-319 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Africa Soviet Union |
Subjects: | foreign policy international relations |
Abstract: | All too often an assessment of Soviet activities in Africa suffers from either one or two extremes: a minimization of such activities to the point of dismissal; or conversely, an over-estimation of these activities to the point of obsession. To reduce Africa's problems to the Soviet Union is as misleading as to neglect its role as one important source of instability and conflict in Africa. The author aims at achieving a better balance between these two extremes. First he examines the scope of Soviet intervention in African affairs, and then turns to an examination of the limits beyond which the realities of such intervention are transformed into myths. Experience of the past few years has revealed a significant lack of Soviet military power in Africa that confirms the long-term irrelevance of Soviet military power to most of the problems that now beset the African continent. The references to a 'Soviet problem' or a 'Cuban problem' in southern Africa are in part the consequence of an 'American problem'. Note. |