Ideology and National Interest in Soviet Foreign Policy

There exist in the West two major approaches to the study of Soviet foreign policy, the followers of each forming separate schools of study not always free of controversy. The controversy between these two schools concerns the motives which each alleges to guide the Soviet leaders in their relations with the outside world. One school stresses the traditional concept of national interest national interest seen not necessarily as the interest of Great Russia, but rather that of broader Tsarist patrimony. It asserts that the Soviet leaders are Russians first and Communists second; and that, consequently, their primary concern is the growth of power of the Russian state. The other school takes the opposite view: it emphasizes the importance of Communist ideology. It claims that the Soviet leaders are Communists first and Russians second; and that, consequently, their overriding objective is to spread Communist revolution throughout the world. The exponents of each of the two schools resort to various historical arguments to support their respective theses

Communism · Development economics · Economics · Foreign policy · Ideology · National interest · Political economy · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Sociology · State (computer science · European and Russian Geopolitical Military Strategies · International Relations and Foreign Policy · Korean Peninsula Historical and Political Studies · Law

• Soviet International Law

  Alina Cherviatsova, Oleksandr Yarmysh•Journal of the History of…•2017

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