Weapons modernization, doctrine, and the decline of the Warsaw pact

Abstract

As the Soviet Union moves precariously into the 1990s, the attention of Western statesmen and analysts remains fixed upon Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts to implement perestroika and glasnost at home and his still ambiguously defined new thinking abroad. Whether the topic is arms control negotiations with the West, the introduction of elements of pluralism into the long moribund Soviet political scene, or the abrupt withdrawal of Soviet power from forward vantage points in the Third World (i.e. Afghanistan), few Western observers any longer doubt that a fundamental transformation has taken place in the Soviet system. Indeed, as Western scholars increasingly acknowledge the significance of the Gorbachev revolution, it has also become apparent that the particular region most heavily influenced by this reform program has been the USSR's former East European empire. The implications of change have been most dramatic for Eastern Europe precisely because events have been propelled by both of the key elements in the Gorbachev program—the Soviet leader not only pushed glasnost and perestroika upon his East European allies (with what were probably unforeseen results), but the ultimate test of new thinking in the foreign policy realm has been the tolerant Soviet response to the collapse of Communist Party authority throughout the bloc. In this sense the movement toward liberal reform in Eastern Europe was both initiated and insulated by the dynamics of Gorbachev's own domestic and foreign reform programs. The apparent Soviet willingness to accept a reunified Germany on Western terms represents, of course, the ultimate Soviet concession along these lines. While the prospects for a peaceable transition away from communism for Eastern Europe may not be decided for some time, one more certain by-product of these developments has been the collapse of the Warsaw Treaty Organization (WTO) as a viable security system. As the institutional linchpin of the Soviet-East European relationship, the Warsaw Pact could hardly have been expected to remain unaffected by the dramatic changes sweeping bloc affairs. In many respects, the high level of Soviet-East European military integration fostered over the