“The Soviet state as a ‘liberal subject’ in world trade”
This paper looks at the Soviet Union’s participation in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development from 1964 until the late 1970s. It explores the Soviet contribution to debates about international trade, arguing that the USSR’s attitude toward global liberalization was utilitarian and cynical, but not inconsequential. On one hand, the article reinforces the view of the Soviet Union as an economic actor integrated in the global economy. On the other hand, it highlights how shallow the grip of liberal economic thinking was in the USSR. The article shows how even a relatively weak economic actor like the Soviet Union retained the ability to pick and choose what aspects of global capitalism to adopt, revealing some of the limits of historical arguments based on economic determinism.