166 INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Soviet-Asian Relations in the 1970s and Beyond: An Interperceptional Study. By Bhabam Sen Gupta. New York' Praeger. 1976 (Dzsmb. in UK by Martin Robertson, London) 368 pp £17'50. Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ia/article/54/1/166/2567984 by guest on 01 May 2023 AFTER the withdrawal of American troops from Indochina and President Nixon's visit to Peking, it is not surprismg that scholars have rushed to write on the changmg polItIco-strategic situatton in Asia Among recent publIcatIOns Gupta's book stands out for Its broad survey and novel approach He examines the whole scene from Teheran to Tokyo and looks at Soviet policies, and the reactIOn of ASIan countries to them, from the pomt of VIew of theIr self-perceptions. His hypothesIs IS that' .. relations between and among nations reflect their perceptIOns of one another. RelatIOns are friendly if the mutual perceptions are compatible and reInforce one another, whIle relatIOns are hostile If the mutual percepttons are grossly incompatlble and antagomstic' (p 338). The clearer and more sophisttcated, from an IdeologIcal point of VIew, is the selfImage, the greater the weIght It is lIkely to play m the declSlon-makmg process Gupta's scholarshIp is thorough and hIS conclUSIOns are convincing and shrewd Gupta traces the ongms of the SovIet self-Image to Marxlsm-Lenimsm and shows how the nse of RUSSIa as a super-power on a par with the United States has remforced rather than undermined the RUSSIans' belief in theIr country's role as the world's leadmg revolutionary power ContradIctIOns that are so apparent to others between its vanous mternatIOnal roles are apparently easily resolved for the leaders In the KremlIn 'by a SImple Lemmst doctrIne that oblIterates all frontlers between Marxlsm-Lemmsm and the Interests of the SovIet state, that IS, RUSSIan natIOnalIsm' (p 2). The SovIet self-Image, therefore, has remained baSIcally unchanged, but Gupta argues that It has m recent years become more complex and IS as a result closer to mternatIOnal reahty. Although the SovIet VIew of the world IS stIll fundamentally a bipolar one, Gupta descnbes how room has been provIded within it for potential allIes and fnends m ASIa Their self-image, however, owes little to Ideology and IS, therefore, eaSIer to change If the commumst states of Indochma are excluded, he can see no eVIdence of any real convergence between the SovIet and ASIan self-images. He concludes that although Impressed by RUSSIa's power, the Asian countnes have not found SovIet CIvIlIsatIon attractIve nor have they been convmced by ItS claim to be a Euro-AsIan natIOn There are two parts to this book: the first exammes the Ideological roots of the Soviet image, its view of Asia, its security model for the contInent and the growth of Soviet naval power. The SovIet strategic goal is Identified as parity wIth, rather than pnmacy over, the United States. Gupta expects that the Russians WIll persevere with theIr efforts to create regIOnal allIances to promote SOvIet Interests, whIle paymg parttcular attentIOn to Iran, India, VIetnam and Japan He discusses how security-related issues have become a major feature of SovIet dIplomacy In ASIa, and how Moscow antiCIpates that dISSIdents nnd governments WIll turn to It for support as the contment continues to be troubled by domestIc mstabilIty and mternational conflIcts The Image that the Russians, therefore, will seek to project is that of a great power seekmg to aSSIst the countries of ASIa to prosper and safeguard theIr mdependence ASIA AND AUSTRALASIA 167 Ideology and Reality in Soviet Policy in Asia: Indo-SOvIet RelatlOns 1947-60 By Zafar Imam Delhi Kalyanz. 1975.260 pp Rs 50 00 IN hIS book, Imam traces m a chronologIcal fashion the ups and downs m SovIet-IndIan relatIons from 1947, when the relatIonshIp was cool, to 1960 when fear of Chma and many other factors drove RUSSIa and India mto a close workmg relatIonshIp The most mterestmg part of the book looks at the speeches of Khrushchev and Molotov at the 20th Party Congress-these, Imam claIms, were an Important mIlestone m Soviet polIcIes towards Asia He further consIders the relevance of ideology to SovIet pohcles A number of hIS assertIons are open to questlOn, such as hIS claIm that Knshna Menon played a decIsIve role m the 1954 Geneva Conference J E WILLIAMS Unzverslty College of Swansea Green Revolution? Technology and Change in Rice-growing Areas of TamIl Nadu and Sn Lanka EdIted by B. H. Farmer. London Macmillan 1977 429 pp £12·00. OF the exaggerations WhICh the 'Green RevolutIon' has generated, ItS name IS not even the worst To be sure, on the wheat farms of the Punjab, the technology WhICh 'packaged' the sowing of hIgh-YIelding varieties wIth the tImely use of IrngatIon water and commercIal fertIlIsers brought almost mstantaneous success By companson, results were less readily forthcommg m the paddy fields of South ASIa, particularly where, outsIde the delta areas, the supply of water was insuffiCIent B H Farmer, the DIrector of the Centre of South ASIan StudIes m Cambndge, and hIS team thus chose WIsely in carrying out an mter-disciplinary survey m non-delta dlstncts m the north-east of TamIl Nadu and the south-east Downloaded from https://academic.oup.com/ia/article/54/1/166/2567984 by guest on 01 May 2023 The second half of the book looks at the three mam regions of the continent As one would expect from an IndIan scholar, the chapter on Southern ASIa IS the best m the book. He shrewdly pomts out that RussIa's polIcies in the PerSIan Gulf, and especially with regard to Iran, must be seen as part of ItS overall strategy m Southern ASIa What Gupta describes is a record of success There is no denymg that Soviet power and influence has grown apprecIably throughout ASIa. However, hIS assessment of lIkely developments m the future lacks balance, because of hIS failure to take a more posItIve VIew of the abIlIty of Chma and the Umted States to mhibit further SovIet advances After all, Amencan strategy m ASIa was not entIrely devoted to supporting reactIonary governments and ItS more constructIve aspects wIll stIll present senous obstacles to Soviet ambitIOns. Gupta does appreciate, nevertheless, that Amencan reluctance to become mvolved m wars of natIOnal lIberatIOn in the future wIll make natIonalIsm m Asia a greater barner than before to Soviet penetratlOn ThIS IS a fine book and one's only regret IS that few students wIll be able to afford to buy It Praeger are to be complImented for pubhshmg It so qUIckly, but ItS pnce is appallmgly hIgh. J. E WILLIAMS Unzverslty College of Swansea