ABSTRACT
In Afghanistan, where Soviet forces were directly involved, Moscow manipulated the client regime at will, but still faced innumerable difficulties. Thousands of Soviet military advisers are in influential positions at all levels of the Syrian army and in air command and control centers; combined Soviet-Syrian maneuvers do not reflect a merely defensive strategy and the number of Soviet naval port visits and their duration is on the rise. Unlike other Soviet leaders, Mikhail Gorbachev acknowledged that there is indeed a contradiction between the USSR's projection of military power in the Third World and its attempts to improve relations with the United States. The shift away from heavy reliance on fostering the military instrument as a means of achieving political goals is the most significant difference between Gorbachev's Third World policy and that of his predecessors. Under Gorbachev the Soviet Union has, in the interest of fostering negotiated settlements, sought to establish contacts with all sides to regional disputes.
