ABSTRACT
In Afghanistan, M.S. Gorbachev demonstrated that his commitment to the peaceful resolution of regional disputes was not rhetoric alone and that the drawdown of military force was a primary objective. And, in Afghanistan, Moscow showed that, while it would seek to reduce the costs and risks associated with its Third World empire, it would continue to provide its clients with the necessary assistance to support themselves. Moscow's decision to withdraw Soviet ground forces from Afghanistan was a tacit admission of its inability to suppress the insurgency. As elsewhere in the Third World, the Soviets have tried to foster leftist, pro-Soviet elements in South Asia. Soviet relations with all of Afghanistan's immediate neighbors—Iran, Pakistan, and China—deteriorated as a result of the invasion. Following Gorbachev's pronouncement that Afghanistan was a problem in need of a political solution, the Soviets turned their energies to forging a settlement that would enable them to withdraw their ground troops.
