2013

Honorable Mention: Rinna Kullaa
Title: Non-alignment and Its Origins in Cold War Europe: Yugoslavia, Finland, and the Soviet Challenge (I.B. Tauris)

On the basis of careful archival work in Finland, Russia, and former Yugoslavia, Rinna Kullaa explores the ways in which Finland and Yugoslavia avoided absorption into the Soviet bloc in the early years of the Cold War. After its expulsion from the Cominform in 1948, Yugoslavia had to search for a new approach to foreign policy that would guarantee its independence. It was attracted to the Finnish policy of neutralism as a way of managing relations with the Soviet Union. Finland and Yugoslavia became partners in their pursuit of neutralism as a political strategy. By 1959, however, pressure from the Soviet Union and Soviet interference in Finnish politics had convinced Yugoslavia that it needed to develop relations with countries outside Europe if it was to remain outside the Soviet bloc. That is how it came to play an important role in the formation of the Non-Aligned Movement. Kullaa provides a very shrewd and illuminating analysis not only of a vital aspect of Cold War Europe but also of the emergence of non-alignment as a powerful force in world politics.

Winner: Ted Hopf