ABSTRACT
The notion of "new political thinking" became the centerpiece of the fundamental change in Soviet behavior on the inter-national scene. It was to a pragmatic foreign policy what perestroika was to the internal development of the USSR. The Soviet Union had not only overcome the confrontational image of the traditional "enemy;" it had adopted a number of that enemy's values, and these in turn became one of the motors of the country's foreign policy. Europe was a focus of special attention as Soviet goals and priorities were redefined in the spirit of the "new political thinking." Main reasons for the collapse of the former Soviet Union was a dramatic lack of effective political and economic reforms. The crisis which the Gorbachev leadership experienced in regard to legitimacy resulted primarily from its inability to carry out a radical transformation of society. One important challenge to Moscow's foreign policy is the problem of the so-called Russian-speaking populations in the former Soviet republics.
