DILEMA OF FOREIGNPOLICY CHANGE AND

CONTINUITY:MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

By Obafemi Fayomi

ABSTRACTThe purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the personality of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, the last leader of the Soviet Union, on his country, Eastern Europe, and the Western world. The paper will briefly discuss who Gorbachev is, Gorbachev's The Soviet Union ForeignPolicy He met and the one He fashionout…

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DILEMA OF FOREIGN POLICY CHANGE AND CONTINUITY: MIKHAILGORBACHEV

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of the

personality of Mikhail Sergeevich Gorbachev, the last leader of

the Soviet Union, on his country, Eastern Europe, and the

Western world. The paper will briefly discuss who Gorbachev is,

Gorbachev's The Soviet Union Foreign Policy He met and the one

He fashion out. The paper will then discuss Gorbachev's initial

reform efforts, his economic "awakening," and the development of

restructuring (perestroika) and openness (glasnost) programs

within the Soviet Union and His foreign relations with America,

China, Europe, Eastern Europe, and His responses to Major

Conflicts in His era. Finally, the paper will conclude with how

Gorbachev's personality had influence on his Foreign policy

decisions, and the eventual loss of the Communist empire in

Eastern Europe and the breakup of the Soviet Union.

2

INTRODUCTION

An explanation of international relations cannot be total

without an examination of the leaders. The main assumption of

this paper however is that most important aspects of

international relations is how leaders represent themselves and

react to their enemies. These representations are the starting

point for strategic interactions and the medium by which they

determine who they are, what they want, and how they should

behave. The argument this paper puts forward following from this

premise is that leaders do matter as agent of change and

continuity in the international system.i

If we want to mention world leaders who deserve increase

attention and investigation, then Mikhail Gorbachev should be

mentioned. He is part of men who for better or worse truly made

history. From ‘interdependence” in strategic relations to

“reasonable sufficiency” regarding unilateral arms cuts.i Political Leadership and Puzzle for Foreign Policy Change and Continuity 2008 State

University of New York Press, Albany

3

Gorbachev’s new thinking constitutes a break with the Soviet

experience of the past and a rejection of much of the

theoretical thinking that prevailed for decades within the

soviet decision making elite. His foreign policy reforms and

reorientation were welcomed not only by the people of the United

States and it policy makers but by people around the world.

Confrontational bloc politics came to an end and a new era began

to emerge.ii

THE MAN MIKHAIL GORBACHEV

Mikhail Gorbachev, the son of an agricultural mechanic on a

collective farm, was born in Privolnoye in the Soviet Union on

2nd March, 1931.iii

Gorbachev's grandfather, Pantelei Yefimovich Gopkalo, was a

staunch member of the Communist Party (CPSU) and was chairman of

the village kolkhoz. In 1937 he was arrested by the NKVD Secret

Police and charged with being a leader of an underground

organization supporting Leon Trotsky. After enduring nearly two

years of torture and imprisonment, his grandfather was released

in December 1938.

In his memoirs Gorbachev argues this incident had a dramatic

impact on his political development. His grandfather remained a

committed communist and introduced his grandson to the works

ii Individual Differences Affect the Foreign Policymaking Process. Leadership Quarterly 9:243-263.

iii Wikipedia Foreign Relations of The Soviet Union http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_the_Soviet_Union Accessed 30th May 2013

4

of Karl Marx, Frederick Engels and Lenin (although not Leon

Trotsky).

During the Second World War Gorbachev's village was occupied by

the German Army. He later wrote: "I was fourteen when the war

ended. Our generation is the generation of wartime children. It

has burned us, leaving its mark both on our characters and in

our view of the world."iv

Gorbachev worked as a combine harvest operator before studying

law at Moscow University. While a student Gorbachev

joined Communist Party (CPSU) and married Raisa Titorenko.

After leaving university Gorbachev became a full-time official

with Komsomol (Communist Youth Organization). In 1955 Gorbachev

he was appointed first secretary of the Komsomol Territorial

Committee. Gorbachev made rapid progress and by 1960 he was the

top Komsomol official in Stavropol. The following year he was a

delegate from Stavropol to the 22nd Communist Party Congress in

Moscow.

Gorbachev studied for a second degree at the Stavropol

Agricultural Institute (1964-67) and in 1970 was appointed First

Secretary for Stavropol Territory. His work in this post

impressed Yuri Andropov, who was at that time the head of

the Committee for State Security (KGB). Andropov now used his

considerable influence to promote Gorbachev's career.

iv Spatacus Educational Journals Accessed 30th May 2013-

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDgorbachev.htm

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In 1971 Gorbachev became a member of Communist Party Central

Committee. He later moved to Moscow where he became the

Secretary of Agriculture. In 1980 Gorbachev became the youngest

member of the Politburo and within four years had become deputy

to Konstantin Chernenko.v

On the death of Chernenko in 1985 Gorbachev was elected by the

Central Committee as General Secretary of the Communist Party.

As party leader he immediately began forcing more conservative

members of the Central Committee to resign. He replaced them

with younger men who shared his vision of reform.

In 1985 Gorbachev introduced a major campaign against corruption

and alcoholism. He also spoke about the need

for Perestroika (Restructuring) and this heralded a series of

liberalizing economic, political and cultural reforms which had

the aim of making the Soviet economy more efficient.vi

Gorbachev introduced policies with the intention of establishing

a market economy by encouraging the private ownership of Soviet

industry and agriculture. However, the Soviet authoritarian

structures ensured these reforms were ineffective and there were

shortages of goods available in shops.

Gorbachev also announced changes to Soviet foreign policy. In

1987 he met with Ronald Reagan and signed the Immediate Nuclear

Forces (INF) abolition treaty. He also made it clear he would nov Wikipedia Foreign Relations of The Soviet Union

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_the_Soviet_Union Accessed 30th May 2013

vi Ageev, A., Gratchev, M., & Hisrich, R. (1995) Entrepreneurship in the SovietUnion and Post-Socialist Russia, Small Business Economics 7(5), 365-376.

6

longer interfere in the domestic policies of other countries in

Eastern Europe and in 1989 announced the withdrawal of Soviet

forces from Afghanistan. The following year he was awarded

the Nobel Peace Prize.

Aware that Gorbachev would not send in Soviet tanks there were

demonstrations against communist governments throughout Eastern

Europe. Over the next few months the communists were ousted from

power in Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, and East Germany.vii

Gorbachev's attempts to make the Soviet Union a more democratic

country made him unpopular with conservatives still in positions

of power. In August 1991 he survived a coup staged by hard-

liners in the Communist Party. Gorbachev responded by dissolving

the Central Committee. However, with the Soviet Union

disintegrating into separate states, Gorbachev

resigned from office on 25th December, 1995.viii

SOVIET UNION FOREIGN POLICY

At its founding, the Soviet Union was considered a pariah by

most governments because of its communism, and as such was

vii US Department of State Archive- http://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/rd/108225.htm

Accessed 30th May 2013

viii Gail Sheehy 1990 The Man Who Changed The World: The Lives Of Mikhail S. Gorbachev Reviewed by John C.

Campbell 1991 HarperCollins Publishers 1991 Pg 224-225

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denied diplomatic recognition by most states. Less than a

quarter century later, the Soviet Union not only had official

relations with the majority of the nations of the world, but had

actually progressed to the role of a superpower.

By 1945, the USSR — a founding member of the United Nations —

was one of the five permanent members of the UN Security

Council, giving it the right to veto any of the Security

Council's resolutions (see Soviet Union and the United Nations).

During the Cold War, the Soviet Union vied with the United

States for geopolitical influence; this competition was

manifested in the creation of numerous treaties and pacts

dealing with military alliances and economic trade agreements,

and proxy wars.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs headed Soviet foreign

policy. Andrei Gromyko was Soviet Minister of Foreign Affairs

for nearly thirty years.ix

ix National News VOA Last Updated December 19, 2011 7:00 PM Accessed 30th May

2013 -http://www.voanews.com/content/gorbachevs-foreign-policy-changed-map-of-

europe-135941568/170960.html

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Gorbachev Foreign Policy

Mikhail Gorbachev was elected Soviet leader on March 11, 1985.

At 54, he was the youngest member of the ruling Politburo that

voted him into power. For the next six years, he instituted

policies that drastically altered the course of history and

ultimately brought about the demise of the Soviet Union.

On the domestic front, those policies were known as glasnost

(openness) and perestroika (restructuring). In foreign affairs,

Gorbachev’s reforms were known as "new thinking."

Gorbachev is the first Soviet leader who has presented himself

as a rational actor. He has discussed world problems openly

with other leaders and candidly recognized shortcomings within

the Soviet system

"New Thinking" was Gorbachev's slogan for a foreign policy based

on shared moral and ethical principles to solve global problems

rather than on Marxist-Leninist concepts of irreconcilable

conflict between capitalism and communism. Rather than flaunt

Soviet military power, Gorbachev chose to exercise political

influence, ranging from the enhancement of diplomatic relations

and economic cooperation to personally greeting the public in

spur-of-the-moment encounters at home and abroad. Gorbachev used

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the world media skillfully and made previously unimaginable

concessions in the resolution of regional conflicts and arms

negotiations. In addition to helping the Soviet Union gain wider

acceptance among the family of nations, the New Thinking's

conciliatory policies toward the West and the loosening of

Soviet control over Eastern Europe ultimately led to the

collapse of communism and the end of the Cold War.x

Relations with America

United States-Soviet relations began to

improve soon after Gorbachev became

general secretary. The first summit

meeting between Reagan and Gorbachev

took place in Geneva in November 1985.

The following October, the two

presidents discussed strategic arms

reduction in Reykjavik, without making significant progress. In

the late summer of 1987, the Soviet Union yielded on the long-

standing issue of intermediate-range nuclear arms in Europe; at

the Washington summit that December, Reagan and Gorbachev signed

the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF Treaty)

eliminating all intermediate- and shorter-range missiles from

Europe. In April 1988, Afghanistan and Pakistan signed an

x US Department of State Archive- http://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/rd/108225.htm

Accessed 30th May 2013

Nuclear Forces Treaty (NFT) On

December 8, 1987, United States

president Ronald Reagan and Soviet

leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed a

treaty banning intermediate-range nuclear weapons.

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accord, with the United States and Soviet Union as guarantors,

calling for withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan by

February 1989. The Soviet Union subsequently met the accord's

deadline for withdrawal.xi

Relations with China

Gorbachev also assiduously pursued closer relations with China.

Improved Sino-Soviet relations had long depended on the

resolution of several issues, including Soviet support for the

Vietnamese military presence in Cambodia, the Soviet occupation

of Afghanistan, and the large numbers of Soviet troops and

weapons deployed along China's northern border. Soviet moves to

resolve these issues led the Chinese government to agree to a

summit meeting with Gorbachev in Beijing in May 1989, the first

since the Sino-Soviet split in the 1950s.xii

Relations with Europe

Soviet relations with Europe improved markedly during the

Gorbachev period, mainly because of the INF Treaty and Soviet

acquiescence to the collapse of communist rule in Eastern Europe

during 1989-90. Since the Soviet-led invasion of Czechoslovakia

xi Political Leadership and Puzzle for Foreign Policy Change and Continuity 2008 State

University of New York Press, Albanyxii US Department of State Archive- http://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/rd/108225.htm

Accessed 30th May 2013

11

in 1968, the Soviet Union had adhered to the Brezhnev Doctrine

upholding the existing order in socialist states. Throughout the

first half of Gorbachev's rule,

the Soviet Union continued this

policy, but in July 1989, in a

speech to the Council of Europe,

Gorbachev insisted on "the

sovereign right of each people to

choose their own social system,"

a formulation that fell just

short of repudiating the Brezhnev

Doctrine. By then, however, the

Soviet Union's control over its

outer empire already was showing signs of disintegration.xiii

That June the communist regime in Poland had held relatively

free parliamentary elections, and the communists had lost every

contested seat. In Hungary the communist regime had steadily

accelerated its reforms, rehabilitating Imre Nagy, the reform

communist leader of the 1956 uprising, and dismantling

fortifications along Hungary's border with Austria. At the end

of the summer, East German vacationers began escaping to the

West through this hole in the Iron Curtain. They also poured

into the West German embassy in Prague. The East German state

xiii Former Russian Leaders Copyright © 2005 - 2013 Russian Presidential Leaders.Money-Zine.com

Brezhnev Doctrine This policy

resurrected the doctrine of

socialist internationalism, or

limited sovereignty that had

prevailed under Soviet leader

Joseph Stalin. It warned

leaders of the Communist

countries in Central and

Eastern Europe that the

Soviet leadership would

decide the limits of

acceptable reform in their

countries.

12

began to hemorrhage as thousands of its citizens sought a better

and freer life in the West.

With the East German government under increasing pressure to

stem the outflow, East Germans who stayed behind demonstrated on

the streets for reform. When the ouster of East German communist

party leader Honecker failed to restore order, the authorities

haphazardly opened the Berlin Wall in November 1989. The same

night the Berlin Wall fell, the Bulgarian Communist Party

deposed its longtime leader, Todor Zhivkov. Two weeks later,

Czechoslovakia embarked on its "Velvet Revolution," quietly

deposing the country's communist leaders. At an impromptu summit

meeting in Malta in December 1989, Gorbachev and United States

president George H.W. Bush declared an end to the Cold War.xiv

Relations with Eastern Europe

Throughout 1990 and 1991, Soviet-controlled institutions in

Eastern Europe were dismantled. At the January 1990 Council for

Mutual Economic Assistance summit, several East European states

called for disbanding that fundamental economic organization of

the Soviet empire, and the summit participants agreed to recast

their multilateral ties. At the next summit, in January 1991,

Comecon dissolved itself. In March 1990, Gorbachev called forxiv Individual Differences Affect the Foreign Policymaking Process. Leadership

Quarterly 9: 243-263.

13

converting the Warsaw Pact to a political organization, but

instead the body officially disbanded in July 1991. Soviet

troops were withdrawn from Central Europe over the next four

years--from Czechoslovakia and Hungary by mid-1991 and from

Poland in 1993. By midsummer 1990, Gorbachev and West German

chancellor Helmut Kohl had worked out an agreement by which the

Soviet Union acceded to a unified Germany within NATO.xv

Reactions to Major Conflicts

By the June 1990 Washington summit, the United States-Soviet

relationship had improved to such an extent that Gorbachev

characterized it as almost a "partnership" between the two

countries, and President Bush noted that the relationship had

"moved a long, long way from the depths of the Cold War." In

August 1990,xvi the Soviet Union joined the United States in

condemning the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and supported United

Nations resolutions to restore Kuwait's sovereignty. In November

1990, the United States, the Soviet Union, and most of the

European states signed the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty,

making reductions in battle tanks, armored combat vehicles,

artillery, and fighter aircraft "from the Atlantic Ocean to the

Ural Mountains."

xv Spatacus Educational Journals Accessed 30th May 2013-

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDgorbachev.htm

xvi ibid

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Minor Relation Complications

During the Gorbachev years, improvements in United States-Soviet

relations were not without complications. For example, in 1991

Soviet envoy Yevgeniy Primakov's attempted mediation of the

Kuwait conflict threatened to undercut the allied coalition's

demand that Iraq withdraw unconditionally from Kuwait. After the

signing of the CFE Treaty, disputes arose over Soviet compliance

with the treaty and the Soviet military's efforts to redesignate

weapons or move them so that they would not be subject to the

treaty's terms. United States pressure led to the resolution of

these issues, and the CFE Treaty entered into force in 1992. The

Soviet crackdown on Baltic independence movements in January

1991 also slowed the improvement of relations with the United

States.

By the summer of 1991, the

United States-Soviet

relationship showed renewed

signs of momentum, when Bush

and Gorbachev met in Moscow to

sign the Strategic Arms

Reduction Treaty (START I)

Under START, for the first time

large numbers of intercontinental ballistic missiles were slated

for elimination. The treaty foresaw a reduction of approximately

Strategic Arms Reduction

Treaty (START I), requiring

both nations to reduce their

strategic nuclear arsenals by

about 25 percent. Both sides

also moved to reduce

conventional weapons and to

continue phased withdrawal

of their forces from Europe.

15

35 percent in United States ballistic missile warheads and about

50 percent in Soviet ballistic missile warheads within seven

years of treaty ratification. Gorbachev recently had attended

the Group of Seven (G-7) summit to discuss his proposals for

Western aid. Gorbachev also established diplomatic relations

with Saudi Arabia, South Korea, and, in the waning days of the

Soviet Union's existence, Israel.xvii

The Aftermath of Gorbachev Foreign Relations

Gorbachev's foreign policy won him much praise and admiration.

For his efforts to reduce superpower tensions around the world,

he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Peace in 1990. Ironically, as

a result of frequent rumors of a conservative coup, the leader

of the Soviet empire, whose previous rulers had kept opposition

figures Lech Walesa and Andrey Sakharov from collecting their

Nobel prizes, was unable to collect his own until June 1991

Experts say Gorbachev understood that the Soviet Union could no

longer use its military force to increase its influence in the

xvii US Department of State Archive- http://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/rd/108225.htm

Accessed 30th May 2013

16

outside world. And in order to create a new foreign policy that

could be sustained economically, Gorbachev realized that Moscow

would have to - in some areas - retrench. 

Archie Brown, Russia expert and Professor Emeritus at the

University of Oxford, says one of those areas was Afghanistan,

where Soviet troops had been fighting mujahedeen guerrilla

forces since December 1979.xviii

"Gorbachev in 1979, when the Soviet intervention took place, he

met with [Eduard] Shevardnadze [the Georgian Communist Party

leader] - at that time, they were both on the fringes of the top

leadership and they were not involved in that decision," said

Brown.  "And they both agreed that it was a disastrous mistake.

Now they didn’t say so in Moscow at the time at meetings there,

because if they had, that would put an immediate stop to their

political careers."

Shortly after becoming Soviet leader, Mikhail Gorbachev named

Shevardnadze foreign minister. And, says Archie Brown, Gorbachev

wanted to get Soviet troops out of Afghanistan.xix 

xviii Berliner J. (1976) The Innovation Decision in the Soviet Industry; Cambridge, Mass: MIT

Press.xix Former Russian Leaders Copyright © 2005 - 2013 Russian Presidential Leaders. Money-

Zine.com

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"He didn’t want to do it in such a way to look like a defeat,"xx

added Brown.  "He had the same problems that leaders of other

countries have had, when many lives of their own young men have

been lost, how do you explain to the mothers or fathers, for

that matter, of these boys, that their deaths had been in vain?

So he was trying to get a negotiated retreat. Nevertheless, he

took a firm decision that all Soviet troops would be out by

February 1989, and they were.”

John Parker, Russia expert with the National Defense University,

says Gorbachev also embarked on a radical policy regarding the

Soviet military.

"He moved to cut the size of the Soviet army," Parker noted. 

"That was another thing that people just couldn’t believe he

would do. But before long, we saw the numbers start to come

down."

Gorbachev’s "new thinking" on foreign policy spread to Eastern

Europe, where people were clamoring for an end to communist

rule. 

In July 1989, the Soviet policy to intervene to prop up

communism ("the Brezhnev doctrine") was replaced by what one

Gorbachev adviser described as the "Sinatra Doctrine," based on

xx ibid

18

the singer’s popular song, "My

Way." In other words, the adviser

said East European countries were

now able to go their own way -

politically and economically -

without fear of invasion by Soviet

troops.

Archie Brown and others say

Gorbachev’s non-interventionist policy ultimately led to the

fall of the Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.

"Because of the time difference, it happened while Gorbachev and

other members of the Politburo were asleep in their beds in

Moscow," recalled Brown.  "By the next day, Gorbachev told the

East German ambassador they had done the right thing in not

trying to stop them and not using force - and he accepted

remarkably readily, the fall of the wall and subsequent

unification of Germany."xxi

In October 1990, Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as Soviet leader,

experts say a victim of forces he unleashed, but ultimately

could not control.xxi National News VOA Last Updated December 19, 2011 7:00 PM Accessed 30th May 2013 -

http://www.voanews.com/content/gorbachevs-foreign-policy-changed-map-of-europe-

135941568/170960.html

"Sinatra

Doctrine," The

name alluded to

the Frank Sinatra

 song "My Way"—

the Soviet Union

was allowing these

nations to go their

own way.

19

Gorbachev Personality in Foreign Policy

As discussed earlier, In the late 1980s, Soviet leader Mikhail

Gorbachev implemented a series of changes in his country's

social, economic and foreign policies designed to bolster the

domestic standard of living and usher in a new era of detente

with the United States. The cumulative effect of his "new

thinking" was to hasten not only the end of the Cold War, but

also the breakdown of the Soviet Empire and, in time, the Soviet

Union itself.

Mikhail Gorbachev became head of the Communist Party of the

Soviet Union in 1985, after the messy succession crisis that

followed the death of Leonid Brezhnev. From the start, Gorbachev

was different from previous Soviet leaders. He had been educated

at Moscow State University, grew up in a Christian family, and

perhaps most importantly, reached adulthood after Stalin died,

so he was not troubled by the haunting memory of purges or

indoctrinated in strict Marxist-Leninist thought. Gorbachev's

generation was far more familiar with the West than its

predecessors, and the growing professional class, that was also

well-educated, demanded reforms to improve the standard of

living and address the troubled economic situation in the Soviet

Union.

The Soviet economy in the mid-1980s faced serious challenges.

Years of centralized controls had led to stagnation, and the

20

Soviet economy was already straining to compete with the

military build-upi in the United States led by President Ronald

Reagan. In response, at the Twenty-Seventh Party Congress in

1986, Gorbachev made two proposals: the first for "perestroika,"

a complete restructuring of the economy, and the second for

"glasnost," or openness. This was due to his education and hisiBrezhnev Doctrine, term used in the West for the justification Leonid Brezhnev and other Soviet leaders

articulated for the August 1968 Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech

Republic and Slovakia). The invasion was intended to put a stop to Czechoslovakia’s political, economic,

and cultural reforms, known as the Prague Spring. According to the official justification for the invasion,

as enunciated by Brezhnev in Warsaw in November 1968, the Soviet Union had the right and duty to

intervene in any situation in which socialism was being threatened, regardless of national boundaries or

the wishes of leaders in the country involved. This policy resurrected the doctrine of socialist

internationalism, or limited sovereignty that had prevailed under Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. It warned

leaders of the Communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe that the Soviet leadership would

decide the limits of acceptable reform in their countries.

Nuclear Forces Treaty (NFT) On December 8, 1987, United States president Ronald Reagan and Soviet

leader Mikhail Gorbachev signed a treaty banning intermediate-range nuclear weapons. The treaty was

important, Reagan noted in his exchange with Gorbachev, because it contained stringent rules to verify

compliance with its provisions, including on-site inspection. Elimination of these weapons, which clearly

targeted European countries because of their limited range, also marked a key step in winding down the

Cold War.

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), United States military research program for developing an

antiballistic missile (ABM) defense system, first proposed by President Ronald Reagan in March 1983.

The Reagan administration vigorously sought acceptance of SDI by the United States and its North

Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) allies. As initially described, the system would provide total U.S.

protection against nuclear attack. The concept of SDI marked a sharp break with the nuclear strategy

that had been followed since the development of the armaments race. This strategy was based on the

concept of deterrence through the threat of retaliation (see Arms Control). More specifically, the SDI

system would have contravened the ABM Treaty of 1972 (see Strategic Arms Limitation Talks). For this

21

liberal view of the situation in the country which is apparently

lacking in his predecessors. The former proposal would pave the

way for privatization of farming and industry, the creation of

profit incentives, and a market system for setting prices and

governing internal trade. Glasnost would ease censorship

controls and create new personal freedoms. Although the

reason and others, the SDI proposal was attacked as a further escalation of the armaments race.

Intermediate Nuclear Forces (NFT) The treaty called for the destruction of all U.S. and Soviet missiles

with ranges of about 500 to 5,500 km (about 300 to 3,400 mi) and established a 13-year program to

verify compliance. The INF treaty was ratified by the U.S. Senate and the Soviet Presidium in May 1988

Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I), requiring both nations to reduce their strategic nuclear

arsenals by about 25 percent. Both sides also moved to reduce conventional weapons and to continue

phased withdrawal of their forces from Europe.

"Sinatra Doctrine" was the name that the Soviet government of Mikhail Gorbachev used jokingly to

describe its policy of allowing neighboring Warsaw Pact nations to determine their own internal affairs.

The name alluded to the Frank Sinatra song "My Way"—the Soviet Union was allowing these nations to

go their own way.

Bibilography

National News VOA Last Updated December 19, 2011 7:00 PM

Accessed 30th May 2013

-http://www.voanews.com/content/gorbachevs-foreign-policy-

changed-map-of-europe-135941568/170960.html

Spatacus Educational Journals Accessed 30th May 2013-

http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/COLDgorbachev.htm

US Department of State Archive- http://2001-

2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/rd/108225.htm Accessed 30th May

22

proposals were warmly received by Soviet citizens, the Party

leadership remained suspicious of change.

Gorbachev's new ideas also had implications for Soviet foreign

policy. The previous fall, in November 1985, Gorbachev and

Reagan met in Geneva, Switzerland for what would be the first of

many summit meetings. At that meeting the two men set an

2013

Gail Sheehy 1990 The Man Who Changed The World: The Lives Of Mikhail S.

Gorbachev Reviewed by John C. Campbell 1991 HarperCollins

Publishers 1991 Pg 224-225

Major David J. Pyle, USA 1989 Gorbachev The Leader

http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/library/report/1989/

PDJ.htm

Harry Gelman 1987 Gorbachev Foreign Policy towards Western

Europe: A Balance Sheet. Rand Project Air Force 1988

Wikipedia Foreign Relations of The Soviet Union

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foreign_relations_of_the_Sovie

t_Union Accessed 30th May 2013

Charles W. Kegley 2010-2011 Edition - Wadsworth, Cengage

Learning World Politics:Trends and Transformation

JONATHAN W. KELLER (2005) 49, Leadership Style, Regime

Type, and Foreign Policy Crisis Behavior: A Contingent

Monadic Peace? International Studies Quarterly 205–231

Former Russian Leaders Copyright © 2005 - 2013 Russian

Presidential Leaders. Money-Zine.com

23

ambitious agenda to discuss increases in trade, cultural

exchanges, human rights, the Iran-Iraq War, the Soviet conflict

in Afghanistan, and other regional conflicts. At a follow-up

meeting the following year at Reykjavik, Iceland, Gorbachev

surprised Reagan with a proposal for massive cuts in the nuclear

forces of each country on the condition that the United States

would abandon its Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI).

Developing, building, and maintaining a competitive nuclear

arsenal and system of defenses was draining the Soviet economy

Ageev, A., Gratchev, M., & Hisrich, R. (1995)

Entrepreneurship in the Soviet Union and Post-Socialist

Russia, Small Business Economics 7(5), 365-376.

Erik Jones 2011 US Power and the Transatlantic Relationship Bologna

Institute for Policy Research SAIS Bologna Center

Individual Differences Affect the Foreign Policymaking

Process. Leadership Quarterly 9: 243-263.

Political Leadership and Puzzle for Foreign Policy Change

and Continuity 2008 State University of New York Press,

Albany

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Berliner J. (1976) The Innovation Decision in the Soviet Industry;

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Microsoft ® Encarta ® 2009. © 1993-2008 Microsoft Corporation. All rights

reserved.

24

and preventing needed domestic reforms from successful

implementation. In spite of this

promising start, Reagan's continuing

commitment to SDI prevented an

agreement between the Soviet Union and

the United States in 1986.xxii

In order to continue economic reforms

and implement perestroika and glasnost,

the Soviet Union needed the costly Cold War competition between

the superpowers to slow down. As long as it was engaged in an

expensive arms race and supporting Third World revolutionaries,

there could be no economic revitalization at home. Gorbachev

still believed in socialism, and at the same time he was

determined to try to save the Soviet Union from the collapse

that could emerge from continued economic crisis. Gorbachev

therefore continued to press for arms agreements. As a result,

in 1987, the United States and Soviet Union reached an agreement

on Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces. They managed it by

skirting the SDI issue, but the agreement was, nonetheless,

important nonetheless for setting a precedent for the

elimination of nuclear weapons. In addition to the INF talks,

the two nations also embarked on the Strategic Arms Reduction

xxii US Department of State Archive- http://2001-2009.state.gov/r/pa/ho/time/rd/108225.htm

Accessed 30th May 2013

Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI), United States military research

program for developing an

antiballistic missile (ABM) defense system,

first proposed by President Ronald

Reagan in March 1983.

25

Talks, or START, signing the first agreement of those

negotiations in 1991. Moreover, Gorbachev oversaw the Soviet

withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan and Angola, and withdrew

Soviet support for the Sandinistas in Nicaragua and the

communist governments in Cuba and Vietnam. He also negated the

Brezhnev Doctrine that pledged Soviet intervention where

communism was under threat, choosing instead to loosen Soviet

control over the countries of the Eastern Bloc and allow them

some freedom in navigating their own futures, a policy that

became known popularly as the "Sinatra Doctrine" because it

allowed the Eastern European states to "do it their way."

Partly because as a child, Gorbachev experienced the Soviet famineof 1932–1933. He recalled in a memoir that "In that terrible year [in

1933] nearly half the population of my native village, Privolnoye,

starved to death, including two sisters and one brother of my father."

Both of his grandfathers were arrested on false charges in the 1930s;

his paternal grandfather was sent to exile in Siberiaxxiii

The Reagan and Bush Administrations took great care in reacting

to these extraordinary developments. Although Reagan welcomed

new overtures from the Soviet Union for peace and cooperation,

he also remained wary and continued to build up U.S. defenses so

that any negotiations that followed could be initiated from a

position of strength. Historians differ in their interpretations

as to whether economic pressure from the United States or an

xxiii Gail Sheehy 1990 The Man Who Changed The World: The Lives Of Mikhail S. Gorbachev Reviewed

by John C. Campbell 1991 HarperCollins Publishers 1991

26

ongoing internal reformist trend in the Soviet Union was more

decisive in ending the conflict, but both were important

factors. xxivMoreover, the relaxation in the arms race made it

possible for both sides to pursue peaceful cooperation in other

areas, and that helped Gorbachev to pursue more liberal policies

toward Eastern Europe. Reagan's successor, President George

Herbert Walker Bush, aided the process by largely staying out of

it; he did not go to Eastern Europe to revel in the Soviet

defeat, making it easier for Gorbachev to effect the retreat

without concerns for the international prestige of the USSR.

Although the many reforms that stemmed from Gorbachev's "new

thinking" were designed to save the Soviet Union, they

ultimately brought about its collapse. As a result, these

reforms played a fundamental role in bringing about the end of

the Cold War.xxv

Conclusion

Mikhail Gorbachev’s record as the last Soviet leader presents a

puzzling mixture of unprecedented success and spectacular

failure. It may be perceived as a stroke of luck that someone

with such personality made it to the top post of the Soviet

political establishment. Once in power, he proved to be

xxiv ibidxxv ? ibid

27

a virtuoso at exploiting the system’s centralized, hierarchical

structure in order to impose his own vision of foreign and

domestic policies. Gorbachev’s open-mindedness enabled him to

adapt and evolve as a foreign policy-maker. He, more than anyone

else, deserves praise for breaking the ‘ideological

straitjacket’ of the Cold War. At the same time, Gorbachev

turned out to be an incompetent domestic reformer. Apparently, a

steadier economic restructuring would have produced better

outcomes. It may be argued that an even more important mistake

was, ironically, the introduction of glasnost into the Soviet

Union’s political life. To give an alternative, we may point out

that there was no talk of ‘openness’ during Deng Xiaoping’s

economic reforms in China. The PRC managed to carry on, and its

‘state-capitalism’ has created the world’s second largest

economy.

Apart from his patchy performance, Gorbachev’s merit has been

further eroded by new evidence which shows him as a mere

representative of the growing numbers of ‘new thinkers’. It is

also argued that the diplomatic breakthrough was induced by the

‘climate of opinion’ set by the collective agency of other

prominent individuals. Nevertheless, Mikhail Gorbachev was the

only individual who was able, because of his position, and

willing to change the USSR’s attitude towards the West and vice

versa. It was his skillful diplomacy that prevented a violent end

to the Cold War.

28

Definition of Terms