ABSTRACT
Soviet denunciations of new US missiles sites in Western Europe passed quickly from its verbal agenda, as did US citations of the Soviet downing of the Korean airliner or the incarceration of Nicholas Daniloff. The problems posed by East-West relations suffer from a lack of theorizing. Politicians need assistance in coping with change, in adjusting to new dynamics and to the possibility that their long-standing beliefs about the world need to be updated and refined if they are to make the most of Soviet-American relations. Viewed from the perspective of the habit-driven actor model lets probe the Soviet-American relationship for points at which old modes may be subject to alteration in response to developments within both societies and in the structure and processes of global life. Perhaps the most persuasive case for rejecting the null hypothesis can be made by comparing the Soviet-American relationship with what it was between the end of World War II and Stalin's death in 1953.
