Great Power Competition over the Establishment of Soviet-Liberian Relations (1956—1962) (Based on Unpublished Russian and U.S. Archival Materials)

Early Soviet-Liberian relations (1956—1962) developed against the backdrop of African decolonization and growing regional engagement of parties to the Cold War. Liberia did not belong to the closest Soviet ideological partners in Africa, maintaining traditional special relations with the United States. However, Liberia’s prominent role in the continent’s pre-decolonization political future attracted Moscow’s attention. The article examines the reasons for establishing bilateral relations despite serious ideological differences and the opposition of the third parties, major constraints and drivers of policies pursued by the USSR and Liberia towards each other. Newly introduced archival materials allow tracing previously little-publicized regional ambitions of the Liberian President William Tubman and his desire to go beyond dependence on Western partners to influence the course of the Cold War in West Africa. The historic, political and polycentric analysis of a broad array of documents thus discovered allowed us to access the degree of independence enjoyed by Liberia’s leadership in its foreign policy agenda and the effectiveness of the course chosen by its president. At the same time, an examination of Soviet relations with Liberia at the turn of the 1950s and 1960s was conducted through the lens of the USSR interests in this region, allowing for a more nuanced study of the ideological and pragmatic goals of cooperation with African countries. The findings are relevant at the current stage of intensifying Russian diplomatic relations with such a staunch U.S. ally in West Africa, which Liberia has been for more than 200 years.