Soviet economic development and the third world

Bibliographic Data

ID11601010
AuthorsDavid E Albright, David Albright (corresponding author)
Year1991
Volume43
Issue1
Pages27-59
Publication date1991-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueSoviet Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0038-5859
PublisherRoutledge (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/09668139108411910
OpenAlexW2062263093
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited11

THERE HAS BEEN a widespread view among Western observers in recent years that the slowdown in the USSR's economic growth is bringing about-or at minimum will bring about-a reduction of Soviet involvement in the Third World. According to this assessment, Soviet economic problems have become so severe that they are having a highly adverse effect on the USSR's capacity to exert influence abroad, and Moscow's assignment of top priority to improving the performance of the Soviet economy attests to its recognition of this reality. However, the argument goes on, the achievement of this goal requires that the USSR curtail its foreign commitments and activities. The Third World, the argument concludes, offers a prime venue for such Soviet retrenchment and the process is already in train there, or soon will be.' Even in its most carefully couched form this view reflects a judgment that economic or structural factors will determine Soviet behaviour towards the Third World. That is, economic considerations will persuade the USSR that a cutback in its undertakings there is essential to its own economic development. Since mid-1988 a few signs have appeared that at least a small segment of the Soviet hierarchy now accepts the need for retrenchment in the Third World in order to cope with the USSR's economic difficulties,2 but there is no evidence of a general evolution of Soviet thinking in such a direction. On the contrary, the recommendations of the great bulk of the Soviet elite who have expressed preferences about how the USSR should approach the Third World, as well as actual Soviet conduct in the Third World, suggest firm rejection of the linkage entailed in this notion. The present article will address the relationship between the USSR's economic development and its policy towards the Third world through Soviet eyes. It will look first at the conceptions of the linkage embodied in the prescriptions for dealing with the Third World advanced in Soviet circles. Then it will examine the nature of the linkage implicit in what the USSR has been doing in the Third World. Finally it will weigh briefly the ramifications for the future of recent trends in the comparative impact on the USSR's activities in the Third World of different Soviet viewpoints about how best to deal with it

Argument (complex analysis · Development economics · Economics · Elite · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Retrenchment · Third world · Law · Public Administration · Russia and Soviet political economy

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