Segurança e Defesa

Soviet Foreign Policy under Gorbachev, por Oles M. Smolansky

Since March 1985, dramatic changes have taken place in the domestic affairs of the URSS. They are generally referred to in the West as perestroika (restructuring), glasnost (openness), and demokratizatsiia. Although generally less appreciated in the West, many important innovations have also been introduced into the Soviet approach to foreign policy as well. Turning from theory to practice, it is widely recognized that Gorbachev’s foreign policy has been more active, more pragmatic, and more flexible than that of his predecessors. Specifically, since 1985, the Soviet Union has tried hard to improve relations with the Western powers (particularly the United States), the People’s Republic of China, and a number of prominent Third World countries. Gorbachev’s efforts to come to grips with the Soviet Union’s economic problems present the West with an important question: should the members of NATO and others assist Gorbachev in his perestroika or would it be more prudent for the West to leave the URSS to its own devices in the reasonable expectation that the General Secretary and his successors will not be able to modernize the Soviet economy effectively? The answer given by this study is that as long as Gorbachev’s tendencies correspond to Western interests, the Western powers should extend Gorbachev a measure of economic, financial, and technological support while remaining militarily strong and economically and technologically advanced in order to insure that Gorbachev and his successors stay on course and to guard against any future surprises.