ABSTRACT
Mikhail Gorbachev's expressions are of Western origin, such as "the security community," "the common house of Europe," "the new way of thinking," and "the elimination of hostile stereotypes." The image of Gorbachev, ubiquitously positive, is much more favorable than that of the Soviet Union, which remains essentially negative. In relations with the West, Gorbachev's policies appear to be based on a simultaneous manipulation of glasnost and the new thinking. Westerners will avoid the pitfalls if they strive to discern more exactly the variable and complex factors shaping Soviet behavior and Gorbachev's policies. The outward incoherence of Soviet European policy—which seems to oscillate between the primacy of the United States and of Europe, of France and of West Germany, of the Right and of the Left—also can be seen to have a certain consistency if one distinguishes between its various time dimensions.
