Contenu du sommaire

Towards a New International Balance in the Far East, by François Joyaux Things are moving in the Far East, and the chances are that the regional balance will be altered in 1989. For now, it proceeds along the Unes drawn ten years ago. Founded on the Sino-Soviet rift, this System no longer fits the interests of régional states. The Sino-Soviet detente began a decade ago ; Soviet policy, hitherto mainly declaratory, has produced effects in certain North East Asian states which noticeably modify the regional balance ; and finally, diplomatic activity in South East Asia has been very intense these last few months. A closer look at the various prevailing attitudes indicates that the major reasons for the Far current evolution lie essentially in the economic realm.

Internal Translations of East-West Compétition in the Third World, by Zaki Laïdi This article does not provide an account of East-West relations in the Third World. Rather, it purports to comprehend the dual process whereby periphe-ral states not only incur international constraints, but also devitalize and transform them. To that end, three levels of analysis, which are all-too often confused, should be made explicit : the instrumentalization of East-West conflict ; the internalization of constraints as well as of socio-cultural East-West values ; and finally, the dual codes, in other words, the simultaneous resort to references borrowed front the « East-West » context, and to strictly internai factors extracted from a stock of ethnie, cultural, or historical resources.

Endgame in Southern Africa, by Pierre Mayer Since 1975, Angola has been in the throes of an unending internationalized « civil » war which involved ail at once, and besides the Angolans them-selves, South Africa, the USSR, Cuba, and their East German auxiliaries, as well as the United States. The agreement concluded in Geneva on 15 Novem-ber 1988 and signed at the United Nations in New York on 22 December by the Americans, the Cubons, the Angolans, and the South Africans providing for the withdrawal of 55,000 Cuban military personnel from Angola, and for the decolonization of Namibia is a historié event. The agreement is particularly instructive in its significance — the advent of new balances of power in the région and in the world — as well as in what it forecasts — a thoroughly new deal on and around South Africa.

Cuban Diplomacy : Dampened, But Unabated, by Jean-Pierre Clerc After the clamorous sixties and the thunderous African military campaigns of the seventies, the international activities of the Cuban révolution had entered into a much quieter phase in the eighties. Ronald Reagan's détermination to « mark » Fidel Castro closely was not unrelated to this. With the approach of the thirtieih anniversary of his victory of 1 January 1959, the « Lider » of Havana has given a new impetus to his diplomacy. The récent signature of the New York agreements on the withdrawal of his troops from Angola is thus a new development, which owes much to the Gorbachev « line ». But Castro is by no means aligned on his Soviet friends' perestroïka.

The Atlantic Alliance and European Security Coopération : The Time for Reappraisal ?, by Yves Boyer and Diego Ruiz Palmer Commemorating its 40th anniversary, the Atlantic Alliance reveals its vitality and its endurance. However the European security landscape the Alliance has successfully contributed to build is in the process of slow but possibly radical evolutions. Thèse changes, and notably the diminishing perception of the Eastern threat will impose a redéfinition of the functioning of the Alliance.