GEOG 4712
Spring 2011
Sample Exam Questions + Answers
10 pts: Contrast Kennan’s approach to relations with the Soviet Union with NSC-68.
Answer: Kennan’s code was regional, while the NSC-68 forwarded a global strategy that perceived
the Cold War as a fundamentally ideological and irreconcilable confrontation. Kennan acknowledged
the particularities of Russian history. In contrast, the NSC-68 was less sensitive to regional diversity
and saw the Soviet Union as part of a unified, monolithic adversary. The following policy
prescriptions demonstrate these differences.
Kennan:
Containment through economic means; American capitalism as something the Soviets would
seek to emulate in the future. Soviet economic system is weak.
Advocated use of local troops.
Diplomacy as central to the strategy of containment. U.S. policy should not contribute to
Soviet paranoia by antagonizing them.
Proposed selective containment in order to deny the Soviets key areas; these points of
- containment can shift.
The Soviet Union was only a threat if they attempted to upset the balance of power in the
international system.
US military means for containing the Soviets are limited in scope.
Rebuild Europe and Japan to restore the balance of power and act against Soviet interests, so
that there is a form of equilibrium in the international system.
NSC-68
Containment through proactive military means.
Called for a major commitment of U.S. forces
Diplomacy is unimportant, and negotiation is impossible. A forward U.S. policy will intimidate
the Soviet leadership.
Complete containment of the Soviet Union—exclude any and all influence.
Saw the Soviet Union as constant military threat—Cold War was a fundamentally ideological
confrontation.
U.S. military means are unlimited in combating this threat.
U.S. should not maintain a balance of power, but constantly and actively strive to frustrate the
Kremlin design.
5 pts: “State”: List 5 authors and briefly list their approach
1. Ratzel/Kjellen- organic expression of people with flexible boundaries, ‘organism’
2. Weber- organization with legitimate monopoly over violence in territory; bureaucracy
3. Taylor/Giddens- bordered power ‘container’
4. Montevideo Convention- sovereign subject with territory, population, government
5. Hobbes- state of nature; all against all; anarchic ‘outside’ demands sovereign Leviathan