ABSTRACT
Vladimir Baranovskij's paper is a fascinating summary of how the process of perestroika came to the arena of foreign policy. It describes a fundamental questioning of basic assumptions about the international system and the erosion of ideological blinders. Baranovskij contends that the »new thinking« called for by Mikhail Gorbachev has moved the conception of East-West relations away from images rooted in the competitive zero-sum bipolar Cold War. He explains that Soviet leaders today see a complex interdependent world and have reassessed their views of external threats. Threats are still perceived, according to Baranovskij, but their sources are now seen as partly contingent upon Soviet behavior and as driven in important ways by the security dilemma facing both superpowers and not only the inherent dynamics of the USA's political economy. Baranovskij describes Soviet leaders as searching for alternatives to deterrence and for strategies that aim not to secure the stalemate of the Cold War but to push beyond it.
