ABSTRACT

The past year has witnessed a rising tide of Western analyses of developments in the Soviet Union under the leadership of Mikhail S. Gorbachev. A new Soviet leader who is seen to introduce some spark into Soviet system is bound to emerge as a novel oddity. The anxieties have been nourished in the past by a succession of wooden-faced Soviet leaders who seemed to personify the dull totalitarian conformity and ideological fetters of the Soviet system, and the sinisterness of its global ambitions. Gorbachev's innovations have been fairly limited, involving some tampering with the margins of the system. The Gorbachev regime already has demonstrated this asymmetry in the capacity for initiative-taking with its latest proposal on intermediate range nuclear forces (INF)—the issue of intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe. In deference to European apprehensions, the United States apparently is endeavoring to introduce these concerns into the INF bargaining at Geneva, with emphasis on the short-range missiles issue.