The Soviet Quest for Regional Security Studies of Foreign Policy Decision-Making in the USSR

Abstract

This study deals with three cases where the regional security aspect of Soviet decision-making was important. Firstly, the Baltic region will be considered. The Soviet strategy for promoting stability in the Baltic republics has been that of integration. The three republics have become politically and economically firmly integrated with the rest of the Soviet Union. Secondly, Soviet Central Asia will be analyzed. Here, the Soviet leaders decided that an intervention of Afghanistan would be the best measure to counteract alleged foreign influence. The third case deals with Soviet-Polish relations. During the Polish crisis of 1980-81 there was a definite possibility of the Soviet military invasion. One motive for an intervention would have been the destabilizing effects of the Western parts of the USSR that the Polish development had. However, another strategy was chosen, a strategy of non-intervention, namely that of martial law. The concerns for regional security could be studied both at the central and regional level. The republic level first party secretaries who supervise the political stability of their regions constitute an especially interesting source when studying the regional component in the Soviet decision-making. During the Brezhnev period the regional party secretaries became far more active in foreign policy matters than earlier. This fact has largely been overlooked in Western research on the Soviet Union.