ABSTRACT
The Soviets themselves are searching for a common framework, a way of looking at the world and its challenges that makes sense to politicians, academics, analysts, and military officers alike. Many analyses of Soviet defense policy and politics have aggregated factors like technological change, and internal politics. There are several dimensions to Soviet military and security policy that provide useful foundations for analysis. Goibachev partisans have spoken so often of the need to “de-ideologize” conflict is testimony to the importance of this factor, and any analysis of the development of Soviet defense policy has to take into account that ideology is far from dead. Students of Soviet security policy must overcome their alternate fascination with and disdain for culture. Recognizing the use of culture in Soviet dialogue will help Western analysts to avoid ascribing importance to issues based on inductive criteria and instead provide a truer reading of the hierarchy of issues within the Soviet context.
