Introduction

Dramatic and controversial changes are taking place in the Soviet Union; changes in the ideology of foreign policy are among the most dramatic and controversial. Mikhail Gorbachev has declared his readiness to make concessions to secure stable East-West relations which will permit the USSR to promote its own interests more effectively, and to concentrate on ambitious and urgent domestic reforms. In ideological matters Gorbachev is an iconoclast; that is, he seems most interested in ridding himself of constraints related to habitual and doctrinally sanctified approaches. His attacks on ideology have supported his efforts to change established ways of doing things, to innovate and experiment. Gorbachev's secular view of the world is both novel and familiar. Shifts in Soviet thinking about foreign policy have occurred before, and have not always proved lasting. Many in the West are skeptical or apprehensive about taking Soviet professions of peaceful intent at face value.