Robert P Hager
Biographic Data
| ID | 1493969 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Robert P Hager |
| GIVEN NAMES | Robert P |
| FAMILY NAME | Hager |
| SIGNATURE | HAGER R P |
| AFFILIATIONS | Los Angeles Mission College |
| ORCID | 0009-0003-1495-4497 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 39 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 13 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 39 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Stalin's Proxy War against Japan, 1937–45: One Principal and Two Agents
This work analyzes Soviet policy towards the 1937–45 Sino-Japanese conflict as a proxy war. It adds to the literature on three counts. Firstly, this is a case where the principal had two agents in the same proxy war. Secondly, the two agents were bitter enemies that had previously fought a murderous civil war against each other. Finally, one gap in the literature is the lack of discussion of the use of a transnational ideological movement in moti…
The Sandinista Revolution: A Global Latin American History by Mateo Jarquín
This book reflects a new approach to Cold War history that stresses the importance of small states, as opposed to earlier analyses of the competition between the Western powers and the Soviet Union. Mateo Jarquín, a historian at Chapman University, assesses the impact of the Sandinista Front of National Liberation (FSLN) on world events. He argues that the FSLN made numerous tactical choices that were crucial in bringing about the overthrow of di…
The Cold War and Third World Socialism
Much of the Cold War was waged in what was then often referred to as the "Third World." The first work reviewed here looks at the victory of the Vietnamese communists in the first Indochina War. Ho Chi Minh's Democratic Republic of Vietnam did not win against France just because of nationalism. It won due to Sino-Soviet aid and its adoption of communist methods of mobilization. The second book examined looks at the persistent endeavor to build so…
Reassessing the Second World War
World War II has been remembered in the United States as “the good war.” Scholarship on the war and its causes generally concentrates on the events of the 1930s with Adolf Hitler as the chief villain. The works reviewed here argue that this focus is too narrow. Understanding the war’s causes requires one to go back to the ideological struggles unleashed by the Russian Revolution in 1917. Additionally, Hitler was at most peripheral to the Second W…
Reassessing the Second World War
World War II has been remembered in the United States as “the good war.” Scholarship on the war and its cause generally concentrates on the events of the 1930s with Adolf Hitler as the chief villain. The works reviewed here argue that this focus is too narrow. Understanding the war’s causes requires one to go back to the ideological struggles unleashed by the Russian Revolution in 1917. Additionally, Hitler was at most peripheral to the Second Wo…
Keeping a War Hidden
There have been conflicts where intervening states take pains to keep their role at least somewhat hidden. Sometimes this is for the purpose of avoiding escalation. What is interesting is that states on both sides of a conflict might wish to keep knowledge of the other side’s actions hidden. States also fight their wars by using groups inside a target state as proxies. This also can serve as a way of keep a conflict limited
Competitive Decolonization and the Algerian War, 1954-62: When Will the Competitors Compete
This paper examines shifting Soviet and American policies during the 1954–62 Algerian War. It attempts to further develop the theory of competitive decolonization to explain these shifts. This theory argues that states can maximize power in the international system by weakening the empires of other states. Willingness to use this technique is largely a function of security concerns involving the metropolitan power. The theory stresses the role of…
Russia’s Imperial Ambitions, Ukraine, and the West
The major focal point of tension between the Western powers and Russia since 2014 has been the latter’s actions in Ukraine. In 2014, Russia invaded and annexed Crimea and launched a war by proxy in
The Cold War and Third World revolution
Much of the Cold War took place in the Third World. The three works authored by Gregg A. Brazinsky, Winning the Third World: Sino-American Rivalry During the Cold War; Jeffry James Byrne, Mecca of Revolution: Algeria, Decolonization, and the Third World Order; and Jeremy Friedman, Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World, are reviewed here and they provide historical details. A consistent theme that emerges is the importan…
Marci Shore: The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution
Looking back at twentieth-century revolutions
The works reviewed here provide insight into two of the more momentous revolutions of the twentieth century: the Russian and the Vietnamese. Sean McMeekin,1 professor of history at Bard College, dr
The end of the liberal order in Europe
The two works reviewed here complement each other. The first is by American journalist James Kirchick,1 a fellow at the Foreign Policy Initiative and a correspondent for the Daily Beast who has als
Teaching Students about the Vietnam War: The Case for Balance
This work examines how the American role in the Vietnam War has been portrayed in standard college- and university-level textbooks dealing with American foreign policy. It argues that this topic has been presented in a manner that leaves an incomplete understanding. This conclusion is based on scholarship that has been available for decades as well as much Cold War historiography that has appeared since 1975. I conclude that the distortions need …
A Cold War before the Cold War: Early Soviet Relations with the West
The field of international relations has seen considerable debate about the reasons for conflict between revolutionary states and status quo powers. The two works reviewed here deal with the early years of the Soviet regime. The material presented indicates that tensions were largely the result of Bolshevik attempts to “export the revolution.” This indicates that it is the nature of a revolutionary state and its desire to challenge the internatio…
Steven W. Hook and John Spanier: American Foreign Policy since World War II
The book being reviewed here is the latest edition of what has been a standard text for college and university courses on American foreign policy for several decades. Steven W. Hook is professor of
History and Culture in Russia and Ukraine: How to Complicate a Crisis of European Security
Russia’s annexation of Crimea was a major blow to the post-World War II security order in Europe and could well be the start of a new Cold War. This is especially the case since it was followed by the initiation of a proxy war in eastern Ukraine. The two works reviewed here deal the current crisis and provide historical background. Although there are actual concrete “national interests” involved in the Russian-Ukrainian relationship, the differen…
Susan Butler: Roosevelt and Stalin: Portrait of a Partnership
Susan Butler has authored several books. The first was a biography of Amelia Earhart. The second was a collection of wartime correspondence between US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Soviet
Richard Bernstein: China 1945: Mao’s Revolution and America’s Fateful Choice
The author of the book being reviewed here has been a journalist for over thirty years and covered Asia and Europe for Time and the New York Times. This book matters for academics even though it is
The laughing third man in a fight”: Stalin’s use of the wedge strategy
Although much IR theory focuses on balancing, this paper examines a version of the wedge strategy, what Stalin allegedly called being “the laughing third man in a fight.” This is the practice of advancing one’s goals by setting up other states to fight each other. The first case study is Soviet strategy in Europe from September 1939 until June 1941. The second is Soviet strategy in the Far East in 1941–45. What I am looking at here is a policy of…
The United States and Nicaragua: Understanding the Breakdown in Relations
Although the United States and Nicaragua maintained cooperative relations for a period after the Sandinista revolution of 1979, ties between the two states deteriorated. What explains the shift from cordial to hostile relations? The two dominant explanations have been that the aggressive policies of the new Reagan administration forced the Sandinista regime into a defensive position of hostility or that a downward spiral occurred based on the sec…
Donald Gross: The China Fallacy: How the U.S. Can Benefit from China's Rise and Avoid Another Cold War
The author of the work being reviewed here is currently an Adjunct Fellow of Pacific Forum, CSIS, which is affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Earlier he held a numb
Détente Improbable—Cold War Unlikely: Russian–American Relations in the Post-Soviet Era
Angela E. Stent: The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014).Robert H. Donaldson, Joseph L. Nogee, and Vidya Nadk
Mark L. Haas: The Clash of Ideologies: Middle Eastern Politics and American Security
Assessing the Cold War in Latin America: Much Heat but Some Light
Hal Brands: Latin America's Cold War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010). Stephen G. Rabe: The Killing Zone: The United States Wages Cold War in Latin America (New York: Oxford Universi
Walter LaFeber: America, Russia, and the Cold War 1945–2006
Balancing empires: Competitive decolonization in international politics
The United States and Nicaragua: Understanding the Breakdown in Relations
Although the United States and Nicaragua maintained cooperative relations for a period after the Sandinista revolution of 1979, ties between the two states deteriorated. What explains the shift from cordial to hostile relations? The two dominant explanations have been that the aggressive policies of the new Reagan administration forced the Sandinista regime into a defensive position of hostility or that a downward spiral occurred based on the sec…
Confronting Bias in International Relations: Responses to the ISP Forum (2:4) Articles by David Gibbs and Robert Snyder
Confronting Bias in International Relations: Responses to the ISP Forum (2:4) Articles by David Gibbs and Robert Snyder Get access Timothy J. White, Timothy J. White Xavier University, Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Gregory P. Nowell, Gregory P. Nowell SUNY Albany, Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Robert Hager, Robert Hager California State University at Dominguez H…
The origins of the 'contra war' in Nicaragua: The results of a failed development model
This article considers the causes of the ‘Contra War’ in Nicaragua during the 1980s. This conflict has often been portrayed as an American ‘proxy war’ fought by Somoza's former National Guard against a regime supported by most common Nicaraguans. This article proposes an alternate view. The Managua regime, with the advice and assistance of the Soviet bloc, pursued a model of political consolidation and economic development followed by other Third…
Soviet bloc involvement in the Salvadoran civil war
The United States State Department's 1981 “White Paper” alleging Soviet-bloc involvement in the Salvadoran Civil War has been the subject of considerable journalistic and scholarly censure. However, many of the criticisms do not withstand serious scrutiny. This study examines the evidence available at the time and later. It concludes that, despite some errors, the State Department's report was based on fairly solid intelligence
Latin American terrorism and the Soviet connection revisited
In the late 1970s and early 1980s, a number of scholars and journalists argued that the USSR was sponsoring terrorism as a means of low‐intensity conflict against the non‐communist world. This view was endorsed by the Reagan administration. This article assesses what substance there is behind such charges as they relate to Latin America. Its main argument is that sponsorship of terrorists has usually occurred as a byproduct of Soviet support of a…
Soviet bloc involvement in the Salvadoran civil war
The United States State Department's 1981 “White Paper” alleging Soviet-bloc involvement in the Salvadoran Civil War has been the subject of considerable journalistic and scholarly censure. However, many of the criticisms do not withstand serious scrutiny. This study examines the evidence available at the time and later. It concludes that, despite some errors, the State Department's report was based on fairly solid intelligence
The origins of the 'contra war' in Nicaragua: The results of a failed development model
This article considers the causes of the ‘Contra War’ in Nicaragua during the 1980s. This conflict has often been portrayed as an American ‘proxy war’ fought by Somoza's former National Guard against a regime supported by most common Nicaraguans. This article proposes an alternate view. The Managua regime, with the advice and assistance of the Soviet bloc, pursued a model of political consolidation and economic development followed by other Third…
Progressive’ obscurantists and immature ‘anti‐fascists’: Stalin's American intellectual followers
Judy Kutulas, The Long War: The Intellectual People's Front and Anti‐Stalinism (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1995). Pp. x + 334; index. $17.95 (paperback). ISBN 0 8223 1524 6 Franklin Folsom, Days of Anger, Days of Hope: A Memoir of the League of American Writers, 1937–1942 (Niwot, CO: University Press of Colorado, 1994). Pp. x + 376; index. $27.50. ISBN 0 87081 332 3
Balancing empires: Competitive decolonization in international politics
Confronting Bias in International Relations: Responses to the ISP Forum (2:4) Articles by David Gibbs and Robert Snyder
Confronting Bias in International Relations: Responses to the ISP Forum (2:4) Articles by David Gibbs and Robert Snyder Get access Timothy J. White, Timothy J. White Xavier University, Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Gregory P. Nowell, Gregory P. Nowell SUNY Albany, Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar Robert Hager, Robert Hager California State University at Dominguez H…
Odd Arne Westad: The Global Cold War: Third World Interventions and the Making of Our Times
Robert Higgs: Resurgence of the Warfare State: The Crisis Since 9/11
Allan R. Millett: The War for Korea, 1945–1950: A House Burning
John G. Stoessinger: Why Nations Go To War
John G. Stoessinger is a prominent scholar of world politics who is currently Distinguished Professor of Global Diplomacy at the University of San Diego. His books have often been assigned as texts
Therese Delpech: Iran and the Bomb: The Abdication of International Responsibility , trans. from the French by Ros Schwartz
Vladislav M. Zubok: A Failed Empire: The Soviet Union in the Cold War from Stalin to Gorbachev
Vladislav Zubok is a Russian scholar who received his doctorate from the Institute for the Study of Canada and the USA of the Soviet Academy of Sciences. He is currently Associate Professor of Hist
Baader-Meinhof Complexities: Ideology and the “Root Causes” of Terrorism
Ulrike Meinhof: Everybody Talks about the Weather ... We Don't: The Writings of Ulrike Meinhof, ed. and trans. Karin Bauer (New York: Seven Stories Press, 2008). In the interest of full disclosure, I
Walter LaFeber: America, Russia, and the Cold War 1945–2006
Frederick Kempe: Berlin 1961: Kennedy, Khrushchev, and the Most Dangerous Place on Earth
Frederick Kempe was with the Wall Street Journal for over a quarter century as reporter, columnist, and editor.
Mark L. Haas: The Clash of Ideologies: Middle Eastern Politics and American Security
Assessing the Cold War in Latin America: Much Heat but Some Light
Hal Brands: Latin America's Cold War (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2010). Stephen G. Rabe: The Killing Zone: The United States Wages Cold War in Latin America (New York: Oxford Universi
Donald Gross: The China Fallacy: How the U.S. Can Benefit from China's Rise and Avoid Another Cold War
The author of the work being reviewed here is currently an Adjunct Fellow of Pacific Forum, CSIS, which is affiliated with the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Earlier he held a numb
Détente Improbable—Cold War Unlikely: Russian–American Relations in the Post-Soviet Era
Angela E. Stent: The Limits of Partnership: U.S.-Russian Relations in the Twenty-First Century (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2014).Robert H. Donaldson, Joseph L. Nogee, and Vidya Nadk
The United States and Nicaragua: Understanding the Breakdown in Relations
Although the United States and Nicaragua maintained cooperative relations for a period after the Sandinista revolution of 1979, ties between the two states deteriorated. What explains the shift from cordial to hostile relations? The two dominant explanations have been that the aggressive policies of the new Reagan administration forced the Sandinista regime into a defensive position of hostility or that a downward spiral occurred based on the sec…
A Cold War before the Cold War: Early Soviet Relations with the West
The field of international relations has seen considerable debate about the reasons for conflict between revolutionary states and status quo powers. The two works reviewed here deal with the early years of the Soviet regime. The material presented indicates that tensions were largely the result of Bolshevik attempts to “export the revolution.” This indicates that it is the nature of a revolutionary state and its desire to challenge the internatio…
Steven W. Hook and John Spanier: American Foreign Policy since World War II
The book being reviewed here is the latest edition of what has been a standard text for college and university courses on American foreign policy for several decades. Steven W. Hook is professor of
History and Culture in Russia and Ukraine: How to Complicate a Crisis of European Security
Russia’s annexation of Crimea was a major blow to the post-World War II security order in Europe and could well be the start of a new Cold War. This is especially the case since it was followed by the initiation of a proxy war in eastern Ukraine. The two works reviewed here deal the current crisis and provide historical background. Although there are actual concrete “national interests” involved in the Russian-Ukrainian relationship, the differen…
Susan Butler: Roosevelt and Stalin: Portrait of a Partnership
Susan Butler has authored several books. The first was a biography of Amelia Earhart. The second was a collection of wartime correspondence between US President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and Soviet
Richard Bernstein: China 1945: Mao’s Revolution and America’s Fateful Choice
The author of the book being reviewed here has been a journalist for over thirty years and covered Asia and Europe for Time and the New York Times. This book matters for academics even though it is
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