ABSTRACT
The debate is marked by three phases: the introduction of the novoe myshlenie, or new thinking, in 1986; the creation of a new military doctrine in 1987; and the disagreements over the concept of reasonable sufficiency. If Mikhail Gorbachev hoped that his statements at the 27th Party Congress would serve to head off some of the emerging military opposition to his pronouncements, he clearly misjudged how the military might react. Gorbachev began a program to revitalize international security. Through the spring and summer of 1986, military alarmism continued unabated. Military authors wanted their audience to remember not only the dangers of conventional conflict but also the possibility of all-out nuclear war. Soviet civilian and military leaders confer and cooperate on a host of prosaic issues. Both Anatolii Dobrynin and Aleksandr Yakovlev are active participants in the drive to enshrine the idea of reasonable sufficiency in Soviet security policy.
