ABSTRACT
Mikhail Gorbachev’s perestroika has generated a dynamic challenge to the costly structure and perceived stability of the post-World War II order. Changes in Soviet foreign policy have proceeded much more rapidly than the efforts to reform the USSR’s obsolete command economy. The new foreign policy seems to anticipate the kinds of changes needed to modernize the Soviet economy and society by changing the basic principles underlying past policy: Ideological subordination of Soviet allies is no longer enforced; and military threats and coercion no longer seem to be primary policy instruments for achieving domestic and foreign policy objectives.
