The security watershed: Russians debating defense and foreign policy after the cold war

Brief Reviews region “stood guard and protected the Muslim world,” permitting Turkey and Iran to retain their independence. Daniel Pipes The Rise of Russia and the Fall of the Soviet Empire. By John B. Dunlop. Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1993.360 pp. $29.95. The unprecedented collapse of the Soviet imperial system is chronicled here with insight, erudition, and rich detail, Dunlop’s thesis is that the gradual assertion of political autonomy by the Russian republic and the rise to prominence of Boris Yeltsin was the outgrowth of Gorbachev’s flawed efforts at reform. He examines the period between 1985and 1991 thematically, that is, with a chapter on Yeltsin’s emergence and challenge to Gorbachev; another on the democratic opposition, including the key reformers; and a third on the “statists” or ultra-conservative members of the turbulent political spectrum. Each chapter provides a comprehensive examination of key personalities, critical domestic developments, and integrating assessments, making the book essential reading for an examin ation of the interplay between domestic politics and foreign policy decisions. Particularly noteworthy are the final two chapters, in which Dunlop recounts the drama of the failed August 1991 coup and the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. The writing is lucid, the data solid (though perhaps, as the author acknowledges, not always authoritative, since much about these years remains shrouded in the past), and the analysis impressive. The study is a model of what can be researched, and with what methods, to understand unfolding developments of great historical significance. Alvin 2. Rubinstein The Security Watershed Russ* Debating Defense and Foreign Policy after the Cold War. Edited by Alexei G. Arbatov. Langhome, Penn.: Gordon and Breach Science Publishers, 1993. 623 pp. $75.00. This collection of thirty-one articles by leading Russian security analysts shows the impact of “new thinking” on their views of nuclear and space weapons, security in Europe, prospects for naval stability, multilateral security cooperation, and regional conflicts following the end of the cold war. Written at a time when Soviet military power and imperial interests loomed large, these essays will need considerable revision in light of Russia’s new strategic-political situation. Nonetheless, the issues dealt with in the book remain sources of difficulty in relations between Washington and Moscow, and, as such, merit attention. Hopefully, the preparers of this volume, the Center for Arms Control and Strategic Stability, and the Institute of World Economy and International Relations of the Russian Academy of Sciences, will undertake a follow-up to this volume in the years ahead. In the meantime, those seeking a perspective on the emerging U.S.-Russian security agenda should keep this compendium Alvin Z. Rubinstein on hand.

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