ABSTRACT
The need for a relatively rapid response to immediate policy problems, for example, can easily compress one's time horizon in looking at Soviet strategic arms decisions and cause one to focus mainly on near-term events with perhaps but a brief nod to the past. One of the reasons for such inconsistent treatment of the data problem is that the needs of scholarship and the needs of policy do not neatly coincide. Indeed, the aspect of Soviet life that Western policymakers most need to have clearly illuminated is the most opaque part for scholars. Many factors combine to make it appear quite acceptable to satisfy the analyst's natural urge to generalize in treating the Soviets. Another kind of omission that specialization might tend to encourage is in basic estimates of Soviet concerns to attain strategic nuclear superiority over the United States.
