Gorbachev's Gamble: Soviet Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War

The Gorbachev Years: A Chronology vii

Preface and Acknowledgements xi

Introduction 1

1 Preparing the Change 9

Dual-Track Diplomacy 9

The Military-Diplomatic Complex 17

‘Moles’ in the Corridors of Power 24

Cracks in the Monolith 34

2 Ambitions and Illusions of the ‘New Political Thinking’ 43

Training for Leadership 43

First Exercises in Foreign Policy 52

Building the New Team 58

Summits in Paris and Geneva 62

A ‘Tail’ of Soviet Diplomacy? 66

‘New Thinking’ or Ideology Revisited? 70

From Philosophy to Politics 75

Reykjavik – ‘the Failed Summit’? 80

‘New Political Thinking’: Rules and Tools 86

3 Breaking the Ice 93

Untying the Reykjavik ‘Package’ 93

Withdrawing from Afghanistan and Retiring from the ‘Third World’ 100

‘Abandoning’ Eastern Europe 114

Destroying the Berlin Wall 131

4 Up to the Peak and Down the Slope 163

Gorbachev’s ‘Anti-Fulton’ Speech at the UN 163

1989 – the Year of ‘the Great Turn’ 169

Malta – a Belated Triumph 176

On the Other Bank of the Rubicon 184

The War in the Gulf and Shevardnadze’s

Resignation 191

The G7 in London: The Summit of a Last (Lost) Chance 200

5 The Winds of Change 214

Notes 234

Bibliography 257

Index 261