Abstract
Since the middle of the 1950s, when the Soviet Union under General Secretary Nikita Khrushchev embarked on an active third world policy, the Middle East and South Asia has been the region of greatest interest to the USSR. Specific clients, such as Cuba and Vietnam, are essential to Moscow’s geostrategic position as well as to its posture in the third world. But the Middle East and South Asia has the greatest importance as a region because of its geographic proximity to the USSR; its strategic location and resources; the opportunities it has provided Moscow as a consequence of chronic Arab-Israeli tensions; and the gains made by the Soviets in political ties, hard currency earnings, and access to air and naval facilities in the Mediterranean, the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes and References
Mohamed Heikal, The Sphinx and the Commissar (New York: Harper & Row, 1978) pp. 203–14.
Raymond L. Garthoff, ‘SALT and the Soviet Military’, Problems of Communism, vol. XXIV (January–February 1975) p. 29.
Department of Defense, Soviet Military Power, 1st edition (Washington, DC: US Government Printing Office, 1981) pp. 16–17.
Jerry Hough and Merle Fainsod, How the Soviet Union is Governed (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1979) p. 384.
Mathew P. Gallagher, ‘The Soviet Military Role in Soviet Decision Making’, in Michael McGwire, Ken Booth and John McDonnell (eds), Soviet Naval Policy: Objectives and Constraints (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1975) pp. 40–58.
Jeffrey T. Richelson, Sword and Shield: The Soviet Intelligence and Security Apparatus (Cambridge, Mass.: Ballinger Publishing Co., 1986) p. 49.
Melvin A. Goodman, ‘The Soviet Union and the Third World: The Military Dimension’, in The Soviet and the Third World, edited by Andrzej Korbonski and Francis Fukuyama (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1987) pp. 46–66.
Mohamad Heikal, The Road to Ramadan (London: Collins, 1975) pp. 165–84.
Mohamad Heikal, The Sphinx and the Commissar (New York: Harper & Row, 1978) p. 11.
Jon D. Glassman, Arms for the Arabs: The Soviet Union and War in the Middle East (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975) p. 59.
Mohamad Heikal, who was a confidant to Gamal Abdel Nasser, and for some time to Anwar Sadat, recorded that Soviet—Egyptian relations initially suffered from the poor linguistic abilities of Soviet translators and that Nikita Khrushchev once threatened to make a mediocre Soviet interpreter ‘into a piece of soap’. See ai]Heikal’s The Cairo Documents (New York: Doubleday & Company, 1973).
Arkady N. Shevchenko, Breaking with Moscow (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985) p. 149.
Robert W. Kitrinos, ‘The CPSU Central Committee’s International Department’, Problems of Communism, vol. 33, no. 5 (September–October, 1984) pp. 47–65.
Arkady N. Shevchenko, Breaking with Moscow (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1985) pp. 188–91.
Mikhail S. Gorbachev, Perestroika: New Thinking for Our Country and the World (New York: Harper & Row, 1987) pp. 173–7.
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1990 Hafeez Malik
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Goodman, M.A. (1990). Foreign Policy and Decision-Making Process in the Soviet Union. In: Malik, H. (eds) Domestic Determinants of Soviet Foreign Policy towards South Asia and the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11318-7_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-11318-7_5
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-11320-0
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-11318-7
eBook Packages: Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies CollectionPolitical Science and International Studies (R0)