The Triumph of Improvisation: Gorbachev's Adaptability, Reagan's Engagement, and the End of the Cold War - Hardcover

Wilson, James Graham

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0801452295 ISBN 13: 9780801452291

Publisher: Cornell University Press, 2014

Synopsis

In The Triumph of Improvisation, James Graham Wilson takes a long view of the end of the Cold War, from the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 to Operation Desert Storm in January 1991. Drawing on deep archival research and recently declassified papers, Wilson argues that adaptation, improvisation, and engagement by individuals in positions of power ended the specter of a nuclear holocaust. Amid ambivalence and uncertainty, Mikhail Gorbachev, Ronald Reagan, George Shultz, George H. W. Bush, and a host of other actors engaged with adversaries and adapted to a rapidly changing international environment and information age in which global capitalism recovered as command economies failed.

Eschewing the notion of a coherent grand strategy to end the Cold War, Wilson paints a vivid portrait of how leaders made choices; some made poor choices while others reacted prudently, imaginatively, and courageously to events they did not foresee. A book about the burdens of responsibility, the obstacles of domestic politics, and the human qualities of leadership, The Triumph of Improvisation concludes with a chapter describing how George H. W. Bush oversaw the construction of a new configuration of power after the fall of the Berlin Wall, one that resolved the fundamental components of the Cold War on Washington's terms.

About this title

About the Author:

James Graham Wilson is a Historian at the U.S. Department of State.

Review:

"This is one of the better books on the end of the Cold War." (Archie Brown, History Today)

"A better assessment is that of James Graham Wilson in 'The Triumph of Improvisation,'"(David Hoffman, Washington Post)

"an entertaining new account of how the Cold War finished" (Richard Gowan, Politico)

"With The Triumph of Improvisation: Gorbachev's Adaptability, Reagan's Engagement, and the End of the Cold War, an estimable young State Department historian, James Graham Wilson, has crisply countered the triumphalist narrative by offering a cogent, parsimonious, and well-written account of the final decade of the Cold War. (James Carden, Russia Direct)

About this edition

• Publisher: Cornell University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0801452295
• ISBN 13: 9780801452291
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 280