ABSTRACT
Krasnaia zvezda’s advocacy of a forward, high-risk policy may be explained in terms of the military establishment’s functional interests. The functional interests and objectives of the military derive from the nature of its primary role—to defend the country against aggression. However, not all of the divergences discerned among the four newspapers may be attributed to interinstitutional polarity. Furthermore, the institutional-functional approach does not really explain the various zigzags and shifts in the lines of the various newspapers. For instance, the institutional-functional approach may explain Pravda’s insistence on an ideologically sound basis for the Soviet relations with the Arab progressive regimes. The GRU and other institutions responsible for foreign military assistance might, in view of the recurrent poor performance of the Arab armies, have opposed increasing involvement, on the grounds that it damaged the prestige and reputation of Soviet training and equipment.
