ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the effect of the various streams of thought so far explored on Soviet policy and behavior in the Third World. It reviews the new-thinking principles concerning the Third World and looks at how actual Soviet behavior has and has not conformed to the precepts of new thinking. The chapter focuses on the rationales that Soviets give for behavior not consistent with new thinking. Beyond the constraints to be imposed on external intervention, new thinking also specifies the optimal approach to achieving the resolution of regional conflicts. The world order proposed by new thinking also calls for the reduction and ultimate elimination of all forms of military presence outside of each nation's borders. Although the changes in Soviet behavior in the Third World are significant and impressive, there is, nonetheless, enough persistence of behavior contrary to the precepts of new thinking that one naturally wonders about its roots.
