This article will analyze the connection between history, countervailing ideologies, that is, the legacy of the Cold War, and the perceived identification of human rights violations as they pertain to countries with major security interests in Northeast Asia. This article will further show that the enduring nuclear-weapons problem in North Korea has been inextricably linked to human rights issues there, specifically because Washington wants to change the behavior of officials in Pyongyang so that the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) becomes a state that at least remotely resembles a liberal democracy. Although supported by much of the international community, including the United States' South Korean and Japanese allies in Northeast Asia, Washington's North Korean policy has remained ineffective, as Pyongyang has continued to perform missile testing and still possesses nuclear weapons.

Much of the Cold War took place in the Third World. The three works authored by Gregg A. Brazinsky, Winning the Third World: Sino-American Rivalry During the Cold War ; Jeffry James Byrne, Mecca of Revolution: Algeria, Decolonization, and the Third World Order ; and Jeremy Friedman, Shadow Cold War: The Sino-Soviet Competition for the Third World , are reviewed here and they provide historical details. A consistent theme that emerges is the importance of ideological factors in driving the events are discussed. It is also clear that the Third World states were not passive objects of pressure from great powers but had agendas of their own. These books provide useful material for theorists of international relations and policy makers.

Based on a wide array of archival sources of the Communist Party of Italy (PCI), the article explores the historical relationship between the Party, Israel and the Jew and focuses on the real motivations behind the current divide between Israel and the European (Communist or former Communist) Left. The articles argues that Communism for Israel has not been lost for the presumed discriminatory attitude of the Jews in the Communist world, nor for historical growing Communist support of Palestinian guerrilla groups, but because of the increasing militarism and nationalism of the Zionist Left and the erosion of Communist and pacifist ideals.

Taking into account recently published evidence on Taiwan’s relations with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, this article examines the official and secret contacts between Moscow and Taipei from 1949 to 1988. It argues that despite some consideration given to a possible cooperation, Cold War hostility suited Taiwan and the Soviet Union more than collaboration. Taipei resorted to the ‘Soviet card’ in the 1970s to hinder Sino—American rapprochement, but never abandoned anti-Sovietism as the foundation of its diplomacy. The Soviet Union, for its part, prioritized normalization of relations with China and avoided rapprochement with the ROC, which could have only further strained ties with the PRC and accelerated the formation of the Sino—US united front against Moscow.