Banking on Military Assistance: Czechoslovakia's Struggle for Influence and Profit in the Third World 1955-1968*
Banking on Military Assistance: Czechoslovakia's Struggle for Influence and Profit in the Third World 1955-1968*
复制标题
依靠军事援助：1955-1968 年捷克斯洛伐克在第三世界争取影响力和利润的斗争*
DOI：
10.1080/07075332.2020.1763422
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发表时间：
2020
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
Richterova D
中科院分区：
文献类型：
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作者：
Richterova D
上世纪50年代，捷克斯洛伐克发起了一项雄心勃勃的计划，向非洲、亚洲和拉丁美洲国家提供军事援助。在获得政治影响力和硬通货的愿望的驱使下，该计划涉及向选定的客户提供武器、军事技术和培训。然而，捷克斯洛伐克面临着许多挑战，因为该国努力向第三世界伙伴提供高质量的培训，并控制经常挑战军事纪律和社会秩序的外国士兵。此外，由于武器销售和学生人数在20世纪60年代初下降，布拉格也在努力使该计划在商业上可行。本文重构了捷克斯洛伐克在20世纪50年代和60年代为第三世界提供军事训练计划的开始、结构、操作挑战和围绕其关键目标的辩论。它特别关注了实施援助计划的主要利益相关者之间的“拉锯战”，这种拉锯战将政治和地缘政治利益与商业利益对立起来。通过对捷克斯洛伐克向第三世界提供军事援助计划所面临的挑战的质疑，本文提供了对布拉格在关键时刻的外交政策的罕见见解，当时它在第三世界塑造了一个新的、积极的角色。它挑战了一种假设，即捷克斯洛伐克外交政策的这一高度敏感领域要么是由政治决定的，要么是由商业利益决定的，而是认为它是由这两个经常相互竞争的优先事项之间的不断斗争形成的。
In the 1950s, Czechoslovakia launched an ambitious program of military assistance to countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Driven by the desire to obtain political influence and hard currency, the program involved the delivery of arms, military technology, and training to select clients. However, Czechoslovakia faced many challenges, as the country struggled to offer quality training to Third World partners and to control foreign soldiers who often challenged military discipline and social order. Moreover, Prague also struggled to make the program commercially viable, as arms sales and student numbers dropped in the early 1960s. This paper reconstructs the inception, structure, operational challenges, and debates surrounding the key objectives of the Czechoslovak military training program for the Third World in the 1950s and 1960s. In particular, it focuses on the ‘tug of war’ waged by key stakeholders running the assistance program, which set political and geopolitical interests against commercial gain. By interrogating the challenges of Czechoslovakia’s military assistance programs to the Third World, this paper provides a rare insight into Prague’s foreign policy at a crucial juncture, when it fashioned a new, activist role in the Third World. It challenges the assumption that this highly sensitive area of Czechoslovak foreign policy was defined either by politics or by commercial interests, rather arguing that it was shaped by a constant struggle between these two often competing priorities.