The Strategic Vision of Eduard Shevardnadze
Abstract
By the mid-1980s, there was broad agreement among the leadership of the Soviet Union that the country was facing a deepening crisis at home and abroad. Its living standards were steadily falling, its industrial base crumbling, its citizens were increasingly demoralized and cynical, and its once vaunted technology lagged progressively farther behind that of its European and Asian neighbors, not to mention its principal adversary, the United States. The decline in these elements of "latent" national power was matched by the increasing irrelevance and economic burden of its massive mobilized power, as its ground and air forces were humiliated in Afghanistan by a mix of high- and low-technology weapons, and its fleets became less able to match the state-of-the-art U.S. naval forces that dominated the seas beyond their inshore bastions. All agreed that the ailing superpower needed a dose of strong medicine. While many conservatives called for a return to the "iron fist" that had served them well in simpler times, the rise of Mikhail Gorbachev to the position of General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) in March 1985 turned the country onto a radically different course. He embarked on an effort to save the Soviet Union through a process of profound internal reform, involving "new thinking," open exchange of information, (glasnost), and economic and political restructuring (perestroika). Recognizing that a much less hostile external environment was required for the success of his program, he set out to transform his country's foreign policy as well. Foreign policy reform was to be the cushion and shield behind which the system could be rejuvenated. To assist with the latter effort, he named Eduard Shevardnadze to serve as Soviet Foreign Minister. This essay reviews the statecraft of Eduard Shevardnadze and how it led to the demise of the Cold War.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1997
- Accession Number
- ADA442556
Entities
People
- Leonard Belgard
Organizations
- National War College