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Soviet Union [USSR] Chapter 10. Foreign Policy
ONCE A PARIAH DENIED DIPLOMATIC RECOGNITION by most countries,
the Soviet Union had official relations with the majority of the
nations of the world by the late 1980s. The Soviet Union also had
progressed from being an outsider in international organizations
and negotiations to being one of the arbiters of Europe's fate
after World War II. In the 1970s, after the Soviet Union achieved
rough nuclear parity with the United States, it perceived its own
involvement as essential to the solution of any major international
problem. The Soviet Union's effort to extend its influence or
control over many states and peoples has resulted in the formation
of a world
socialist system (see Glossary) of states whose citizens
include some one-fourth of humanity. In addition, since the early
1970s the Soviet Union has concluded friendship and cooperation
treaties with a number of Third World states. For all these
reasons, Soviet foreign policy is of major importance to the
noncommunist world and helps determine the tenor of international
relations.
Although myriad bureaucracies have been involved in the
formation and execution of Soviet foreign policy, the major policy
guidelines have been determined by the Politburo of the Communist
Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU). The foremost objectives of Soviet
foreign policy have been the maintenance and enhancement of
national security and the maintenance of hegemony over Eastern
Europe. Relations with the United States and Western Europe have
also been of major concern to Soviet foreign policy makers, and
relations with individual Third World states have been at least
partly determined by the proximity of each state to the Soviet
border and to Soviet estimates of its strategic significance.
Despite domestic economic problems, Mikhail S. Gorbachev, who
became general secretary in 1985, has emphasized increased Soviet
participation in international organizations and negotiations, the
pursuit of arms control and other international agreements, and the
reinvigoration of diplomatic, political, cultural, and scientific
initiatives in virtually every region of the world.
Data as of May 1989
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