The Soviet Economy: Toward the Year 2000 by Abram Bergson; Herbert S. LevineReview by: John C. CampbellForeign Affairs, Vol. 62, No. 1 (Fall, 1983), p. 222Published by: Council on Foreign RelationsStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/20041785 .

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222 FOREIGN AFFAIRS

In 1947, in a relatively short article, George Kennan set the model for a

generation of American scholars and public officials on the subject of the sources of Soviet conduct. Now, under the sponsorship of Georgetown University and the guidance of Robert Byrnes, 35 American and British experts have addressed the same subject in this weighty volume. The Soviet Union has changed in the

interim, Soviet studies have flourished in the West, and the methods of study have changed, but, while understanding has increased, many of the questions remain unanswered or unanswerable. Nevertheless, this is a very solid work,

representing the best in American expertise on the internal affairs and external relations of the U.S.S.R.

SOVIET POLICY FOR THE 1980s. Edited by Archie Brown and Michael Kaser. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983, 282 pp. $19.50.

A British version of the same Western endeavor to see what the new Soviet

leadership is up against and what its policies will mean both for Soviet society and for East-West relations. Less ambitious, less comprehensive than the George town volume noted above, it has a corresponding set of stars among its authors

and, while still worthy of the careful attention of experts, is easier going for the

general reader.

THE SOVIET ECONOMY: TOWARD THE YEAR 2000. Edited by Abram

Bergson and Herbert S. Levine. Winchester (Mass.): Allen & Unwin, 1983, 452

pp. $37.50. This compendium overlaps the economic chapters of the two general surveys

noted above, but it carries the investigation further and digs much more deeply into the specific fields of industry, labor, technological progress, agriculture, energy, and foreign economic relations. It highlights the familiar problems and

critical choices for the future?reform, resource allocation, etc.?but the volume serves as more than an exercise in forecasting; above all, it is an authoritative

description of recent trends and of the state of the Soviet economy today.

THE GRAND STRATEGY OF THE SOVIET UNION. By Edward N. Lutt wak. New York: St. Martin's, 1983, 242 pp. $14.95.

As Luttwak sees it, Russia is an expanding empire bound to keep pushing outward and just now, given the combination of its precarious military superiority and its dim economic prospects, entering a new phase of military aggression? witness Afghanistan, with China the likely next victim. The author himself is

convinced, if not always convincing. Two substantial studies are appended to

Luttwak's short text, one on the economic basis of Soviet power by Herbert

Block, the other by W. Seth Carus on the military buildup since 1965.

THE SOVIET UNION AND THE THIRD WORLD: AN ECONOMIC BIND.

By Elizabeth Kridl Valkenier. New York: Praeger, 1983, 188 pp. $21.95. Soviet thinking and policy receives here a more searching inquiry than in most

of the literature on U.S.S.R.-Third World relations. In addition to the usual

statistical sources and official statements, the author has used all the Soviet

professional writing (plus interviews with some of the writers) to illustrate

significant differences over time and in content. She identifies trends and

contending schools of thought which have impelled the Soviets to adapt theory and political aims to economic reality and the recognition of the limits of Soviet

influence. She may overstate her case here and there, but it is important that the case be on the record.

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