Economic Vulnerability in International Relations: The Case of East-West Trade, Investment, and Finance

In providing aid to the ailing economies of the former USSR and Eastern Europe, many Western governments fear that they may be leaving themselves vulnerable to fierce economic competition in the future. This study examines claims that vulnerability existed in Western economic relations with the former Soviet Union and Eastern Europe from 1970 to 1990, and shows how the historical evidence undercuts the vulnerability assumptions that fueled the Reagan administration's foreign policy and were never systematically tested.