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.

Soviet global strategy, long established and well understood by the Kremlin leaders, is to intimidate weak and fearful governments, exploit indigenous difficulties, disrupt social order, and promote communist revolutions. In this volume, European and American scholars describe the USSR's land and sea targets on and surrounding West Europe, where t

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).

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

In the first analysis of the start of the Cold War from a Soviet viewpoint, Caroline Kennedy-Pipe draws on Russian source material to reach some startling conclusions. She challenges the prevailing orthodoxy of Western historians to show how Moscow saw the presence of US troops in Europe in the 1940s and early 1950s as advantageous rather than as a check on Soviet ambitions. The author points to a complex web of concerns than fuelled Moscow's actions, and explores how the Soviet leadership, and Stalin in particular, responded to American policy. She shows how the Soviet experience of the United States and Europe, both before, during and after the Second World War, led Moscow to a policy that was not simply fuelled by anti-Americanism. Six chapters cover events from the wartime conferences of 1943 until the death of Stalin. A final chapter places the book in the context of the current debate over the causes of the Cold War.