Western Europe and the western alliance: Soviet and post‐soviet perspectives

Abstract

Soviet foreign policy analysis, by focusing on the global ‘correlation of forces’, including the economic and political strength of different groups, as well as their military might, sought to identify inter‐imperialist splits. Scholarly rivalries separated Soviet analysts into two groups: the ‘Atlanticists’ (who saw Western Europe as essentially subordinate to the United States) and the ‘Europeanists’, who saw Western Europe as a growing economic rival to the United States (and Japan). The fortunes of the two groups varied over time. In the Gorbachev period and subsequently, analysts have been excessively pro‐western and often inaccurate, failing to appreciate the nature of the crisis that still grips Western Europe. A more accurate evaluation, now that the post‐Gorbachev euphoria has died down, may lead to a reinstatement of the broad‐ranging Marxist approach as an effective method of analysis.