ABSTRACT
The across-the-board minimalism in Soviet thinking about foreign policy was perhaps best captured in an off-hand remark by Aleksandr Yakovlev, Mikhail Gorbachev's closest ally on the Politburo. Eduard Shevardnadze was acknowledging that the meaning of the term is politically up for grabs, subject to the debate that glasnost has brought to other facets of Soviet life. Such has been the purpose of the ensuing debate about the national interest—in defining it, to change it. Three principal changes stand out: first, a repudiation of past policy in favor of more minimal goals; second, an opening up of the process by which foreign and defense policies are formulated; and third, a readiness to defer to international opinion. The first of these—minimalism—has narrowed the scope of Soviet interests. The second and third—domestic pluralism and sensitivity to outside views—have broadened the ranks of those with a say in defining legitimate and viable Soviet purposes.
