ABSTRACT
The first five years of perestroika produced myriad lessons for scholars and policymakers, particularly with respect to the conduct and study of Soviet foreign policy and US-Soviet relations. Soviet foreign policy in the first five years of perestroika has been described as "new thinking"-a misnomer as "new thinking" in fact becomes established thinking. The postwar generation of Soviet diplomats, well trained by Soviet standards, began assuming positions of authority as part of a conscious perestroika of the diplomatic corps. Perestroika has shattered the paradigm of a rigid, ideologically driven Soviet foreign policy. Perestroika in foreign policy has not emanated from the top alone but has also involved the assumptions, concepts, and policy initiatives proposed by various foreign policy specialists. Soviet foreign policy decisionmakers under Gorbachev have in fact been more than willing to match revolutionary pronouncements with revolutionary transformations. New approaches to the study of the future direction of Soviet foreign policy will require that policymakers be properly informed.
