American Perceptions of Soviet Foreign Policy: Reconsidering Three Competing Perspectives

Abstract

This paper reviews and critiques three diagnoses of Soviet foreign policy and competing prescriptions for U.S. strategy. In each case, it considers three areas: first, the development of central concepts and claims, focusing upon their definition and falsifiability; second, the empirical evidence that confirms or disconfirms the various claims; and third, the dangers associated with the advocated prescription. It attempts to bring insights from the fields of comparative foreign policy and political psychology to bear upon the study of Soviet foreign policy and to identify important assumptions that can, and need, to be refined into testable propositions.