ABSTRACT
The accession of Mikhail Gorbachev in 1985 provided the occasion for the formulation of a new Soviet political agenda. Even before replacing Konstantin Chernenko, Mikhail Gorbachev had used the new phrase "The nuclear age inescapably dictates a new political thinking". Other important area, which deserves separate analysis, concerns the changed Soviet view of national and international security. The change becomes dramatically apparent in light of Stalin's notion that Soviet security was in substance a function of the insecurity of other states. Compare this with the remark of Gorbachev that there can be no security for the Soviet Union without security for the US Moscow has come to stress the shared priorities of human survival, international and mutual security, and protection of the environment. Moscow has not been willing to pay a substantial price for the attainment of its foreign policy objectives anywhere. The new political thinking is thus regarded as part doctrine and part lobby, at times in uncertain proportions.
