ABSTRACT
The Soviet state constitutes a fundamentally new form of rule, intuitively unfamiliar in many respects to the mind tempered by the heritage of the European Enlightenment. From the practical standpoint, an accurate understanding of Soviet capabilities and intentions has become a matter of increasing consequence. The Soviet Paradox appears to question whether the Russian people, and the other peoples of what Seweryn Bialer calls "the internal empire," are the stuff from which a world power could really ever be built. Much of The Soviet Paradox focuses on Soviet foreign policy. Unlike certain Western observers, Bialer does not feel that Soviet foreign policy can be understood in isolation from other factors pertaining to Soviet power. The Soviet Union needs greater access to Western trade and credit to aid its own economy. It needs an "arms control" agreement with the United States that will maintain its "strategic parity."
