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The Cold War statecraft and public diplomacy: assessing US-Soviet scientific-technical exchanges

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Abstract

Using a statecraft framework, the article analyses Cold War US-Soviet exchange programs with a specific focus on scientific-technical exchanges. The practice of scientific-technical exchanges is meaningful at least in three ways: (1) it helps to better understand the art of American and Soviet statecraft that had a major impact on the course of events in maintaining inter-state relations; (2) it shows that statecraft does not make itself, but is accomplished through various tools of public diplomacy in which exchange programs are one; and (3) it allows to utilize a long-term perspective and evaluate the legacy of the exchanges of persons and their impact on bilateral relations despite the Cold War tensions. The legacy of scientific-technical exchanges and their impact on bilateral relations might be incorporated into the contemporary academic and practitioner discourse on public diplomacy.

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  1. National Research University Higher School of Economics, 20 Myasnitskaya Ulitsa, Moscow, Russia, 101000

    Olga Krasnyak

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Krasnyak, O. The Cold War statecraft and public diplomacy: assessing US-Soviet scientific-technical exchanges. Place Brand Public Dipl 19, 54–63 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1057/s41254-021-00220-8

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