In Search of Sovereignty: Central and Eastern Europe, 1956-1989

Abstract

International theory is replete with contested concepts, none more than state sovereignty. Although embodied in the UN Charter, it came under continuous strain during the early Cold War, culminating in the crucial year of 1956. Subsequent Soviet ideologists sought to justify the invasion of Czechoslovakia as „limited sovereignty”, dubbed by US analysts the “Brezhnev Doctrine”. A few Western scholars thought this ended with the „non-invasion” of Poland in 1980-1981, but Russian archives reveal that it was not annulled until spring 1989.