ABSTRACT
Paradigms are cheap, whereas dimes are hard to come, not to speak of the billions of dollars requested by Poland and other Eastern European states. But neither paradigms nor dollars are likely to solve the multiple crises of Eastern Europe. The point is that whatever action, influence, linkage, or leverage is envisaged must be seen in light of this new historical situation--the collapse of the Soviet empire and the resulting challenge to the division of Europe. Direct linkage in the classical sense is valuable. What does seem newer and more specifically American is the belief that everything can be linked with everything else--that official, public, and rigid linkage can be an instrument or a substitute for diplomacy. The experience seems to lead us in the same direction. The United States is more inclined to practice linkage in favor of human rights and to subordinate economic relations with the Soviet Union to security considerations.
