Soviet 'Nationality Front': Some Implications for U.S. Foreign and SecurityPolicy

摘要

Until recently, U.S. policymakers and policy planners took it for granted thatthe Soviet Union would enter the 21st century as a unified country. The great uncertainty was not whether the USSR, but whither. This presumed alternative has been overtaken by events. Instead of 'normalizing' or backsliding, the Soviet Union seems to be disintegrating before our very eyes. From this perspective, the principal uncertainty facing the U.S. policy community is obviously no longer whether the Soviet Union will evolve into a 'normal' country. Rather, it is: how will U.S. interests be affected as the newly self-assertive peoples of the USSR and the central authorities from whom they are in the process of emancipating themselves continue to work (and fight) out what have already become completely new relationships both with each other and with the outside world.