(Not) Reagan's Puppets

(Not) Reagan’s Puppets Analysis of Hidden Intentions in Altruistic Behaviour Based on the Example of Dutch Trade Unions' Relationship with Their Polish Counterparts in the 1980s Filip Kalinowski (520123) Master Thesis Class The Rise and Fall of the American Empire Dr. Chris Nierstrasz Word count: 21831 Erasmus School of History, Culture and Communication 24 June 2024 Abstract Organizations with an ideology seemingly based on altruism can be used to push forward self­interested goals of certain states. This research links self-interested altruist behaviour with International Relations, then proceeds to analyze the scholarly debates on the use of NGOs and trade unions as government agents and connect their findings. Finally, it inquires into the archival correspondence of the Dutch FNV during their support for the Polish Solidarity movement in the 1980s. This research proposes to draw an analogy in the way the International Financial Institutions (IFIs) and international trade union confederations operated due to their disconnectedness from the people they are serving, their high degree of politicization and their elitist internal structure. Moreover, both of these types of organizations created political and economic environments within which their local-level counterparts - grassroots NGOs and national trade union federations, respectively - contributed to the perpetuation of these environments and therefore, provided gains for state actors. This thesis shows that the World Bank and the IMF, among others, coerced developing countries to fall under the Capitalist, rather than the Soviet, sphere of influence during the Cold War. Therefore, such institutions came into existence to serve the self-interest of Western nation-states, which is the main tenet of realism - a school of thought which inspired this research. This thesis shows that non­state actors, like trade unions and other groups, due to their unique nature as non-governmental organizations, have remained largely underrepresented in scholarly works despite their high degree of potential international influence and a high legitimacy to represent the working class abroad. On the other hand, works analyzing the government-associated nature of NGOs are abundant. Considering the current tensions between the West and powers such as Russia or China, understanding the role of such agents is crucial for policymaking.