1988 Black Sea bumping incident

The Black Sea bumping incident of 12 February 1988 occurred when American cruiser USS Yorktown tried to exercise the right of innocent passage through Soviet territorial waters in the Black Sea during the Cold War. The cruiser was bumped by the Soviet frigate Bezzavetny with the intention of pushing Yorktown into international waters. This incident also involved the destroyer USS Caron, sailing in company with USS Yorktown and claiming the right of innocent passage, which was intentionally shouldered by a Soviet Mirka-class frigate SKR-6. Yorktown reported minor damage to its hull, with no holing or risk of flooding.[1] Caron was not damaged.[1]

At the time, the Soviet Union recognized the right of innocent passage for warships in its territorial waters solely in designated sea lanes.[2] The United States believed that there was no legal basis for a coastal nation to limit warship transits to sea lanes only.[3] Subsequently, the U.S. Department of State found that the Russian-language text of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, Article 22, paragraph 1 allowed the coastal state to regulate the right of innocent passage whenever necessary, while the English-language text did not.[1] Following the incident, the Soviet Union expressed a commitment to resolve the issue of innocent passage in Soviet territorial waters.[1]

USS Yorktown collision
Soviet frigate Bezzavetny (right) bumping USS Yorktown
USS Caron (DD-970) collision
Soviet frigate SKR-6 bumping USS Caron


In 1979, the United States launched an informal program to promote the "rights and freedoms of navigation and overflight guaranteed to all nations under international law."[1] The US government said that it initiated the program because some countries were beginning to assert jurisdictional boundaries beyond traditional claims.[1] The United States wished to stop this and, it said, diplomatic protests had seemed to be ineffective.[1] A new customary international law could emerge if nations avoided operating their ships and aircraft in the disputed areas, and the US saw this as undesirable.[1]

In the 1980s, US warships were passing through the straits from the Mediterranean into the Black Sea two or three times a year to "show the flag" and to claim the right of innocent passage in the coastal states.[1] Aside from the right of free passage, US naval activity in the Black Sea served the purpose of upholding US rights under the 1936 Montreux Convention Regarding the Regime of the Straits. According to a US government official, "the Dardanelles and the Bosporus form an international waterway" under that convention and "if you don't periodically reaffirm your rights you find that they're hard to revive."[1]

Meanwhile, "The Rules of Navigation and Sojourn of Foreign Warships in the Territorial Waters and Internal Waters and Ports of the USSR," enacted by the Soviet Council of Ministers in 1983, acknowledged the right of innocent passage of foreign warships only in restricted areas of the Soviet territorial waters in the Baltic, Sea of Okhotsk and the Sea of Japan;[1] no sea lanes for innocent passage in the Black Sea were designated.[1] The Soviet vessels and aircraft were routinely dispatched to observe US warships there.[1] In the 1980s, the Soviet Union viewed the US presence in the Black Sea as an attempt to undermine improving Soviet–American relations.[1]

After the 1986 incident in the Black Sea, also involving USS Yorktown and USS Caron, a meeting of the Soviet Defence Council was held later in the same year.[4] At the meeting, the Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Navy Vladimir Chernavin offered to Mikhail Gorbachev, Defense Minister Sergey Sokolov, Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze, and other senior officials that intruding foreign warships could be driven from Soviet waters by several means including bumping.[4]


On 12 February 1988, the Ticonderoga-class cruiser USS Yorktown, and the Spruance-class destroyer USS Caron, conducted an innocent passage exercise in the Black Sea. Caron passed 7.5 mi (12.1 km) off the Soviet shore, and Yorktown drew to 10.3 mi (16.6 km) offshore. The commander of the Black Sea Fleet Mikhail Khronopulo received an order from Chernavin to curb the passage of US warships.[4] Initially the destroyer Krasnyy Kavkaz was tasked with confronting them, but she experienced technical problems so Bezzavetnyy, a Krivak-class frigate, was dispatched instead.[5] However, according to Bezzavetny's commander, Captain Vladimir Bogdashin, his ship had two cruise missiles instead of four, was half the size of Yorktown, and was only a third its size by displacement.[5] The Soviet frigate SKR-6, commanded by Captain Anatoliy Petrov, was approximately one quarter the size of USS Caron.[5]

First, Caron was approached by the frigate SKR-6, and three minutes later, Yorktown was approached by the frigate Bezzavetnyy,[1] while Tupolev Tu-16 bombers monitored the vessels' movements.[6] As the US warships clipped a corner of the Soviet territorial waters, they were bumped. At 10:02 a.m, local time, 44°15.2′N 33°35.4′E﻿ / ﻿44.2533°N 33.5900°E, 10.5 nautical miles (19.4 km; 12.1 mi) from the coast, SKR-6 bumped the port side aft of Caron at frame about 60 feet (18 m) from the bow.[1] Caron received superficial scraping of paint, with no personnel injuries.[1] Bezzavetnyy, having bumped Yorktown, was ordered to move away and not to contact her again.[5]

Both US warships stayed on even course after the incident. Caron left Soviet territorial waters at 11:50 a.m. local time without further incident.[1]

Both US warships reported the incident to the commander in chief of United States naval forces in Europe. Caron reported that, at 13:20 local time, it was informed on channel 16 VHF by Bezzavetnyy: "Soviet ships have orders to prevent violation of territorial waters, extreme measure is to strike your ship with one of ours."[1] The reply of Caron was "I am engaged in innocent passage consistent with international law."[1] Yorktown, in its report stated that on 9:56, local time, it was contacted by Bezzavetnyy via channel 16 and told to leave Soviet territorial waters or "our ship is going to strike on yours."[1] Then, according to the report, Bezzavetnyy came alongside port side of Yorktown at 10:03 and bumped it by turning into the ship.[1]

The starboard anchor of Bezzavetnyy was torn away.[1] Two Harpoon missile canisters on Yorktown sustained damage when Bezzavetnyy's bullnose passed down port quarter. Bezzavetnyy then cleared to port and took station 300 yd (270 m) off the port beam of Yorktown.[1] Bezzavetnyy required a minor repair.[5]


The Soviet Ministry of Defense issued a statement blaming the U.S. warships for ignoring the "warning signals of Soviet border guard ships" and for "dangerously maneuvering in Soviet waters".[3] The incident also drew a diplomatic protest from the U.S. government.[7]

These incidents were covered in the annual review of compliance with the US/Soviet Agreement On the Prevention of Incidents On and Over the High Seas signed on 25 May 1972.


  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x William J. Aceves. "Diplomacy at Sea: U.S. Freedom of Navigation Operations in the Black Sea". International Law Studies. 68.
  2. ^ Kraska & Pedrozo 2013, pp. 255–256
  3. ^ a b Kraska & Pedrozo 2013, p. 256
  4. ^ a b c Сергей Птичкин (10 April 2014). Атака "Беззаветного". Rossiyskaya Gazeta (in Russian). Archived from the original on 8 September 2014. Retrieved 8 September 2014.
  5. ^ a b c d e Алексей Овчинников (16 February 2012). Империя наносит последний удар. Komsomolskaya Pravda (in Russian). Archived from the original on 7 September 2014. Retrieved 7 September 2014.
  6. ^ Mark Thompson (13 February 1988). "Soviet, U.S. Ships Bump In Black Sea". Philadelphia Media Network. Archived from the original on 7 September 2014. Retrieved 6 September 2014.
  7. ^ Kraska & Pedrozo 2013, p. 257


  • Kraska, James; Pedrozo, Raul (2013). International Maritime Security Law. Martinus Nijhoff Publishers. ISBN 9004233571.
1976 Argentine coup d'état

The 1976 Argentine coup d'état was a right-wing coup that overthrew Isabel Perón as President of Argentina on 24 March 1976. A military junta was installed to replace her; this was headed by Lieutenant General Jorge Rafael Videla, Admiral Emilio Eduardo Massera and Brigadier-General Orlando Ramón Agosti. The political process initiated on 24 March 1976, took the official name of "National Reorganization Process", and the junta, although not with its original members, remained in power until the return to the democratic process on December 10, 1983.

The coup d'état had been planned since October 1975, and the United States Department of State learned of the preparations two months before its execution. The American secretary of state Henry Kissinger would meet several times with Argentinian military leaders after the coup, urging them to destroy their opponents quickly before outcry over human rights abuses grew in the United States.

ASEAN Declaration

The ASEAN Declaration or Bangkok Declaration is the founding document of Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). It was signed in Bangkok on 8 August 1967 by the five ASEAN founding members, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand as a display of solidarity against communist expansion in Vietnam and communist insurgency within their own borders. It states the basic principles of ASEAN: co-operation, amity, and non-interference. The date is now celebrated as ASEAN Day.

Anti anti-communism

The phrase anti anti-communism has been noted by Clifford Geertz, an American anthropologist at the Institute for Advanced Study as a term applied, in "the cold war days" by "those who … regarded the [Red] Menace as the primary fact of contemporary political life" to "[t]hose of us who strenuously opposed [that] obsession, as we saw it … with the insinuation – wildly incorrect in the vast majority of cases – that, by the law of the double negative, we had some secret affection for the Soviet Union."Stated more simply by Kristen R. Ghodsee and Scott Sehon: "In 1984, the anthropologist Clifford Geertz wrote that you could be ‘anti anti-communism’ without being in favour of communism."Jonathan Chait, in a critique of Stephen F. Cohen used a fully hyphenated form of the term, calling Cohen: "… an old-school leftist who has carried on the mental habits of decades of anti-anti-communism seamlessly into a new career of anti-anti-Putinism."

Arms race

An arms race occurs when two or more nations participate in interactive or competitive increases in "persons under arms" as well as "war material". Simply defined as a competition between two or more states to have superior armed forces; a competition concerning production of weapons, the growth of a military, and the aim of superior military technology.

The term is also used to describe any long-term escalating competitive situation where each competitor focuses on out-doing the others.

An evolutionary arms race is a system where two populations are evolving in order to continuously one-up members of the other population. This concept is related to the Red Queen's Hypothesis, where two organisms co-evolve to overcome each other but each fails to progress relative to the other interactant.


More generically, the term is used to describe any competition where there is no absolute goal, only the relative goal of staying ahead of the other competitors in rank or knowledge. An arms race may also imply futility as the competitors spend a great deal of time and money, yet end up in the same situation as if they had never started the arms race.

Asian Relations Conference

The Asian Relations Conference took place in New Delhi in March-April 1947. It was hosted by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, who then headed a provisional government that was preparing for India's Independence, which came on 15 August 1947. The Asian Relations Conference brought together many leaders of the independence movements in Asia, and represented a first attempt to assert Asian unity. The objectives of the conference were "to bring together the leading men and women of Asia on a common platform to study the problems of common concern to the people of the continent, to focus attention on social, economic and cultural problems of the different countries of Asia, and to foster mutual contact and understanding."

In his writings and speeches, Nehru had laid great emphasis on the manner in which post-colonial India would rebuild its Asia connections. At this conference Nehru declared: "... Asia is again finding herself ... one of the notable consequences of the European domination of Asia has been the isolation of the countries of Asia from one another. ... Today this isolation is breaking down because of many reasons, political and otherwise ... This Conference is significant as an expression of that deeper urge of the mind and spirit of Asia which has persisted ... In this Conference and in this work there are no leaders and no followers. All countries of Asia have to meet together in a common task ..."

Die Wende

Die Wende (German pronunciation: [diː ˈvɛndə], "The Turn" or "The Turnaround") is a German term that has come to signify the complete process of change from the rule of the Socialist Unity Party of Germany and a centrally planned economy to the revival of parliamentary democracy and a market economy in the German Democratic Republic (also known as East Germany or the GDR) around 1989 and 1990. It encompasses several processes and events which later have become synonymous with the overall process. These processes and events are:

the Peaceful Revolution during the presidency of Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, a time of massive protest and demonstrations (Montagsdemonstrationen – "Monday demonstrations" and Alexanderplatz demonstration) against the political system of the GDR and for civil and human rights in late 1989.

the fall of the Berlin Wall on 9 November 1989 following a press conference held by the Politbüro during which Günter Schabowski announced the introduction of unconditional travelling permissions, which was very unusual after four decades of severe travelling restrictions and intended to tone down the protesters but instead because of Schabowski's unclear and ambiguous wording led to an onrush of people willing to leave the country and the accidental opening of the border checkpoints at the same night.

the transition to democracy in East Germany following the Peaceful Revolution, leading to the only truly democratic elections to the Volkskammer of the GDR on 18 March 1990.

the process of German reunification leading to the Einigungsvertrag (Treaty of Unification) on 31 August 1990, the Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany on 12 September 1990 and finally the joining of the five re-established East German Länder to the Federal Republic of Germany.In hindsight, the German word Wende (meaning "The Turn") then took on a new meaning; the phrase seit der Wende, literally "since the change", means "since reunification" or "since the Wall fell". This period is marked by West German aid to East Germany, a total reaching an estimated $775 billion over 10 years. To some extent, Germany is still in the midst of the Nachwendezeit (post-Wende period): differences between East and West still exist, and a process of "inner reunification" is not yet finished.

This fundamental change has marked the reunification of Germany. The term was first used publicly in East Germany on 18 October 1989 in a speech by interim GDR leader Egon Krenz (the term having been used on the cover of influential West German news magazine Der Spiegel two days previously). Whilst it initially referred to the end of the old East German government, die Wende has become synonymous with the fall of the Wall and of East Germany, and indeed of the entire Iron Curtain and Eastern Bloc state socialism.

Exercise Verity

Exercise Verity was the only major training exercise of the Western Union (WU). Undertaken in July 1949, it involved 60 warships from the British, French, Belgian and Dutch navies. A contemporary newsreel described this exercise as involving "the greatest assembly of warships since the Battle of Jutland."

Frozen conflict

In international relations, a frozen conflict is a situation in which active armed conflict has been brought to an end, but no peace treaty or other political framework resolves the conflict to the satisfaction of the combatants. Therefore, legally the conflict can start again at any moment, creating an environment of insecurity and instability.

The term has been commonly used for post-Soviet conflicts, but it has also often been applied to other perennial territorial disputes. The de facto situation that emerges may match the de jure position asserted by one party to the conflict; for example, Russia claims and effectively controls Crimea following the 2014 Crimean crisis despite Ukraine's continuing claim to the region. Alternatively, the de facto situation may not match either side's official claim. The division of Korea is an example of the latter situation: both the Republic of Korea and the Democratic People's Republic of Korea officially assert claims to the entire peninsula; however, there exists a well-defined border between the two countries' areas of control.

Frozen conflicts sometimes result in partially recognized states. For example, the Republic of South Ossetia, a product of the frozen Georgian–Ossetian conflict, is recognized by eight other states, including five UN members; the other three of these entities are partially recognized states themselves.


In the Russian language the word Glasnost (; Russian: гла́сность, IPA: [ˈɡɫasnəsʲtʲ] (listen)) has several general and specific meanings. It has been used in Russian to mean "openness and transparency" since at least the end of the eighteenth century.In the Russian Empire of the late-19th century, the term was particularly associated with reforms of the judicial system, ensuring that the press and the public could attend court hearings and that the sentence was read out in public. In the mid-1980s, it was popularised by Mikhail Gorbachev as a political slogan for increased government transparency in the Soviet Union.

Guerrilla war in the Baltic states

The Guerrilla war in the Baltic states or the Forest Brothers resistance movement was the armed struggle against Soviet rule that spanned from 1940 to the mid-1950s. After the occupation of the Baltic territories by the Soviets in 1944, an insurgency started. According to some estimates, 10,000 partisans in Estonia, 10,000 partisans in Latvia and 30,000 partisans in Lithuania and many more supporters were involved. This war continued as an organised struggle until 1956 when the superiority of the Soviet military caused the native population to adopt other forms of resistance. While estimates related to the extent of partisan movement vary, but there seems to be a consensus among researchers that by international standards, the Baltic guerrilla movements were extensive. Proportionally, the partisan movement in the post-war Baltic states was of a similar size as the Viet Cong movement in South Vietnam.


Hoxhaism is a variant of anti-revisionist Marxism–Leninism that developed in the late 1970s due to a split in the Maoist movement, appearing after the ideological dispute between the Communist Party of China and the Party of Labour of Albania in 1978. The ideology is named after Enver Hoxha, a notable Albanian communist leader.

Innocent passage

Innocent passage is a concept in the law of the sea that allows for a vessel to pass through the territorial waters of another state, subject to certain restrictions. The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea Article 19 defines innocent passage as:

1. Passage is innocent so long as it is not prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State. Such passage shall take place in conformity with this Convention and with other rules of international law.

2. Passage of a foreign ship shall be considered to be prejudicial to the peace, good order or security of the coastal State if in the territorial sea it engages in any of the following activities:

(a) any threat or use of force against the sovereignty, territorial integrity or political independence of the coastal State, or in any other manner in violation of the principles of international law embodied in the Charter of the United Nations;

(b) any exercise or practice with weapons of any kind;

(c) any act aimed at collecting information to the prejudice of the defence or security of the coastal State;

(d) any act of propaganda aimed at affecting the defence or security of the coastal State;

(e) the launching, landing or taking on board of any aircraft;

(f) the launching, landing or taking on board of any military device;

(g) the loading or unloading of any commodity, currency or person contrary to the customs, fiscal, immigration or sanitary laws and regulations of the coastal State;

(h) any act of wilful and serious pollution contrary to this Convention;

(i) any fishing activities;

(j) the carrying out of research or survey activities;

(k) any act aimed at interfering with any systems of communication or any other facilities or installations of the coastal State;

(l) any other activity not having a direct bearing on passage.

Innocent passage concedes the coastal country's territorial sea claim, unlike freedom of navigation, which directly contests it.The law was codified in 1958 and affirmed in 1982.

Jamaican political conflict

The Jamaican political conflict is a long standing feud between right-wing and left-wing elements in the country, often exploding into violence. The Jamaican Labor Party and the People's National Party have fought for control of the island for years and the rivalry has encouraged urban warfare in Kingston. Each side believes the other to be controlled by foreign elements, the JLP is said to be backed by the American Central Intelligence Agency and the PNP is said to been backed by the Soviet Union and Fidel Castro.

Johnson Doctrine

The Johnson Doctrine, enunciated by U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson after the United States' intervention in the Dominican Republic in 1965, declared that domestic revolution in the Western Hemisphere would no longer be a local matter when "the object is the establishment of a Communist dictatorship". It is an extension of the Eisenhower and Kennedy Doctrines.

Le Cercle

Le Cercle is a foreign policy think-tank specialising in international security. Set up after World War II, the group has members from twenty-five countries and meets at least bi-annually, in Washington, D.C., United States.

NDF Rebellion

The NDF Rebellion was an uprising in the Yemen Arab Republic by the National Democratic Front, under Yahya Shami, between 1978 and 1982.


Titoism is described as the post-World War II policies and practices associated with Josip Broz Tito during the Cold War, characterized by an opposition to the Soviet Union.It usually represents Tito's Yugoslav doctrine in Cold War international politics. It emerged with the Yugoslav Partisans' liberation of Yugoslavia independently of, or without much help from, the Red Army, resulting in Yugoslavia being the only Eastern European country to remain "socialist, but independent" after World War II as well as resisting Soviet Union pressure to become a member of the Warsaw Pact.

Today, Titoism is also used to refer to Yugo-nostalgia, a longing for reestablishment or revival of Yugoslavism or Yugoslavia by the citizens of Yugoslavia's successor states.

Ulbricht Doctrine

The Ulbricht Doctrine, named after East German leader Walter Ulbricht, was the assertion that normal diplomatic relations between East Germany and West Germany could occur only if both states fully recognised each other's sovereignty. That contrasted with the Hallstein Doctrine, a West German policy which insisted that West Germany was the only legitimate German state.

East Germany gained acceptance of its view from fellow Communist states, such as Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, and Bulgaria, which all agreed not to normalise relations with West Germany until it recognised East German sovereignty.

West Germany eventually abandoned its Hallstein Doctrine, instead adopting the policies of Ostpolitik. In December 1972, a Basic Treaty between East and West Germany was signed that reaffirmed two German states as separate entities. The treaty also allowed the exchange of diplomatic missions and the entry of both German states to the United Nations as full members.

Western Bloc

The Western Bloc during the Cold War refers to capitalist countries under the hegemony of the United States and NATO against the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact. The latter were referred to as the Eastern Bloc. The governments and press of the Western Bloc were more inclined to refer to themselves as the "Free World" or the "Western world", whereas the Eastern Bloc was often called the "Communist world or Second world".

Frozen conflicts
Foreign policy
See also
Other incidents


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