Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book focuses on the latter, since the Cold War was in reality more often fought in the sphere of the economy and of ideas than with weapons in a literal sense. The Western periphery of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) was more developed in economic terms than its Southern periphery when the CMEA was founded and remained so, even if the gap narrowed during the 1950s and 1960s. The leadership of the CMEA countries promised to offer an alternative to capitalism as embodied by Communist ideology. This coincided with mentioning an emerging “socialist world system” occasionally. The CMEA never constituted a supranational organization. For this reason, the CMEA is better regarded as an umbrella organization that hosted discussions and negotiations on a multitude of issues considered relevant by its members.