Soviet Strategy Toward Western Europe

This book, first published in 1984, carefully examine the political debate surrounding nuclear weapons and superpower polices in Cold War Western Europe. It seeks to analyse a distinctly European view in Soviet policy, as opposed to a superpower view. It examines Soviet domestic and foreign policy, economic and military practice, with the aim of understanding and countering the Soviet threat to Western Europe.

This report presents the multiple issues raised at an international conference on "The Future of Soviet Policy Toward Western Europe," held in Ebenhausen, West Germany, October 26-28, 1984, under the auspices of The RAND Corporation, the Stiftung Wissenschaft und Politik, and the Institut Francais des Relations Internationales. The ten papers presented at the conference consider the internal Soviet dimension (both political and economic) and its possible consequences for the future of Soviet policy toward Western Europe; the nature of present Soviet strategy toward Western Europe, both in general and with respect to West Germany in particular; the East European factor and its possible effects on European detente; Soviet behavior in the world arena and its possible consequences for Europe; and finally, overall prospects for Soviet policy, both in the near term and in the late 1980s.

This report analyzes the objectives, instruments, and achievements of Soviet policy toward Western Europe. It focuses on the mechanisms used by the Soviet Union to pursue its objectives in Europe, including diplomacy, military power, arms control, the West European Communist parties, ties with the non-Communist left, propaganda, and trade. The author concludes that the Soviet Union has achieved mixed results in its policy toward Western Europe. While it has succeeded in helping to consolidate postwar gains, Soviet policy has not yet made a dramatic breakthrough toward its stated objective of fostering a system of 'collective security' in Europe. Nevertheless, there is little evidence to suggest that failure to achieve these maximal goals has led the Soviets to rethink their objectives of lower their expectations. (Author).

This book assesses the evolution of the Soviet approach toward European security policy since the mid-1980s, as seen from the prism of assessments of and policy toward the Federal Republic of Germany, examining basic Soviet analyses of West Germany in the period prior to unification.

Enkeltafsnit: Détente, Moscow's View - Dedision making in the USSR - Soviet Policy and the Domestic Politics of Western Europe - Soviet-East European Relations - Soviet Military Capabilities and Intentions in Europe - Soviet Military Posture and Policy in Europe - Soviet Economic Relations with Western Europe - West European Economic Relations with the Soviet Union

This report examines the ways in which Soviet control of Eastern Europe has both contributed to and detracted from the Soviet Union's pursuit of foreign policy goals in Western Europe. In successive sections, it (1) reviews the highlights of past USSR-East European-West European interactions and outlines general characteristics of the triangular relationship; (2) examines the impact of the Polish crisis; and (3) traces the East European foreign policy activity related to NATO's 1983 decision to deploy intermediate-range nuclear forces and analyzes the emergence of a group of East European states--East Germany, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Romania--whose policies differed from those of the Soviets. The author suggests that, while Eastern Europe serves as a constraint on Soviet relations with Western Europe, Western Europe also acts as a constraint on Soviet policy toward Eastern Europe. (Author).