ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a few introductory remarks about methodological and data constraints. It outlines the advances that made in the field of Soviet studies some general concepts of political theory which are equally relevant for the Soviet case. The chapter describes the main elements of an integrated approach to Soviet foreign policy, and looks at questions of East-West relations, with reference to the concept of security. Disquisitions on method in analyzing Soviet conduct in general and Soviet foreign policy should “center on the meeting point of general concept and datum, which is the crux of the whole matter. Despite Welch’s rather pessimistic conclusion, Soviet foreign policy analysis had made considerable progress in accumulating knowledge as well as in applying social sciences theories. All characterization of the political process and order faces the perennial problem of the primacy of the “acting man” versus that of the “dominance of the system.”.
