ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the impact of new thinking on the Third World. It addresses the significance of Gorbachev's new assumptions and objectives as well as the nature of the policies being pursued by Moscow in the Third World. The chapter explores the successes and failures of Moscow's policies to date and examines the continuing opportunities and impediments to those policies. Moscow's Third World policies reflect revised assumptions about the Soviet role in developing countries. Moscow wanted the United Nations to participate and to provide a mediating service, a monitoring force, and legitimacy to the process. In Africa, Moscow has encouraged Mengistu to pursue a negotiated settlement to the Ethiopian civil war and even publicly endorsed the Ethiopian talks with the Eritrean insurgents sponsored by former President Jimmy Carter in Atlanta in 1989. Moscow's continuing effort to sell sophisticated weapons and commercial aircraft was graphically demonstrated at the Paris Air Show in June 1989.
