The Soviet Study of International Relations

This examination of what specialist observers of foreign policy with the Soviet Union have been saying to each other over the past 20 years which shows how such phenomena as nuclear warfare, western prosperity and the Sino-Soviet split have forced analysts to diverge sharply from traditional Leninist orthodoxy. The result has been a Soviet analysis of world politics that is considerably more complex and politically sophisticated than westerners often assume. This is manifested in an increasingly multipolar world view, accepting the continued existence of the USA, in which the USSR is seen as an integral component of an international system, rather than simply as the centre of a unique and expanding system of its own. Fundamental to this changing perspective is the perception that no Soviet interests could possibly be served by nuclear war, in whatever form. In an extended preface, Allen Lynch examines the impact of the recent Gorbachev reform initiative upon the intellectual basis of Soviet foreign policy.