A History of the World From the 20th to the 21st Century

on 8 December Yeltsin and the leaders of the Ukraine came to an evidently hurried decision to make a complete break with the pas ...

1 RUSSIAN FEDERATION A R C T CI O C E A N N O R T H S E A ON R W A Y WS DE NE G ER M AN Y IF N AL N D PO LA ND Minsk Moscow St P ...

In both China and the former Soviet Union only half of the double transition, to a market eco- nomy andto democracy, has been at ...

injured. But the struggle between parliament and the president was not over. The December elec- tions proved disappointing for t ...

Chechnya: the region was crucial to Russia’s econ- omy as it is crossed by the main oil pipeline from Baku. The unpopular war, b ...

his first year he was also wrong-footed at home. On the 21 October 2000 there was an explosion on the nuclear submarine, the Kur ...

Ronald Reagan had many detractors, who directed sneers at the movie actor turned presi- dent, the ‘great communicator’ who faile ...

more revenue. The theory was that lower taxes gave firms more profit, and consumers more money in their pockets; this in turn wo ...

expenditure of 10 per cent per year. Caspar Weinberger, previously renowned for his cost- cutting ways, was in charge of defence ...

office one of the most popular presidents in American history. The economy continued to respond and unemployment did not rise ab ...

forces was limited by a law passed by Congress after the Vietnam War to restrict the president’s freedom of action: this was the ...

NATO allies. The proposal did not affect missiles outside Europe, that is in the US or Siberia. So far the Soviets had rejected ...

of external relations. It led to the one major scan- dal of the Reagan era, the so called Iran–Contra affair. In the Gulf War be ...

In Congress in 1989 Bush faced Democratic majorities in both Houses. The Democrats were not inclined to vote for measures to red ...

the middle class, many of whom were threatened by unemployment. The nation had become increasingly polarised, not simply between ...

NATO air strikes and the lifting of the arms embargo, but at this time, early on in his admin- istration, his stance lacked conv ...

was seeking to position the US, already the most powerful economy in the world, as the fulcrum of global trade in the twenty-fir ...

presidential elections, General Colin Powell, chairman of the joint chiefs of staff during the Gulf War, had declined to be cons ...

Abroad Clinton had tried in vain to steer clear of using US power aggressively. But after diplo- macy had failed he did interven ...

first in each of the Union’s states. Would George W. Bush be able to claim sufficient legitimacy to be able to act as president? ...