The contributors to this volume have undertaken an assessment of the Soviet Union as it enters the last decade of the 20th century. Organized to cover each major area of policy initiative (or response), the collection surveys the Gorbachev reform agenda and its successes and failures to date in various fields, including culture, economics, ideology, law, politics, federalism and the nationality problem, and foreign policy vis-a-vis the West, Eastern Europe and the Third World.

Mikhail Gorbachev and Zdenek Mlynar were friends for half a century, since they first crossed paths as students in 1950. Although one was a Russian and the other a Czech, they were both ardent supporters of communism and socialism. One took part in laying the groundwork for and carrying out the Prague spring; the other opened a new political era in Soviet world politics. In 1993 they decided that their conversations might be of interest to others and so they began to tape-record them. This book is the product of that “thinking out loud” process. It is an absorbing record of two friends trying to explain to one another their views on the problems and events that determined their destinies. From reminiscences of their starry-eyed university days to reflections on the use of force to “save socialism” to contemplation of the end of the cold war, here is a far more candid picture of Gorbachev than we have ever seen before.

Since the rise to power of Mikhail Gorbachev, observers increasingly ask, 'Is the Cold War over? What do these changes mean for foreign policy? How confident can we be about anyone's ability to foresee the future?' This volume brings together a representative group of interpreters of the Cold War to address some of the recurrent questions. Responses divide both scholars and politicians. Critics of the Bush administration charge it has shown more nostalgia for the familiar patterns of the Cold War than energy in responding to changes in Soviet-American relations. Serious scholars who often agree on foreign policy assessments differ on key issues concerning the end of the Cold War and what will take its place. Contributors: William D. Anderson, Clay Clemens, Michael Cox, Anton W. Deporte, R. Bates Gill, Norman Graebner, Sterling Kernek, Shao-Chuan Leng, Peter Rutland, Peter Shearman, Steve Smith, Jack Spence, and Kenneth W. Thompson. Co-Published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.

Relates the Soviet changes in attitudes, ideas, and practices that he is implementing.