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Liberating the Soviet Bloc
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13694 |
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CURRENT ISSUES
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Date : |
8 / 1988 |
2,929 Words |
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Janusz Bugajski
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The communist states of Eastern Europe are beset by growing political and economic problems that the West can exploit to hasten the eventual emergence of democratic and independent nations. Escalating crises in the post-Brezhnev era revolve around the fundamental contradiction between a continuing Leninist dictatorship and any sustained economic growth through market-oriented reform. The indecisive reforms enacted thus far in some states have principally accentuated this built-in antagonism. Moreover, Mikhail Gorbachev's reformist rhetoric and pressures for improved economic performance and tighter integration within the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA) have simply heightened domestic tensions.
Given the volatile mixture of deteriorating economic conditions, falling living standards, mounting public frustration, an entrenched and immovable communist bureaucracy, unyielding and fearful party elites, and the urgent need for innovation and modernization, severe emergencies could occur in the perilous years ahead. The 1990s threaten to become a decade of trauma and turmoil throughout Eastern Europe, which will severely test the traditional ability of communist leaders to somehow muddle through. The West should not be caught unprepared by the depth and breadth of Soviet bloc convulsions. On the contrary, while cognizant of its own limitations, it should actively engage in a political version of jujutsu that turns the weaknesses of one's adversaries (the party autocracies) into the strength of one's potential allies (independent social forces in Eastern Europe).
Historical lessons
Since the late 1950s, the West has pursued a policy of "peaceful engagement" with Soviet bloc regimes, with a view to involving these states in close economic, cultural, and political ties and thereby promoting their evolution toward greater national autonomy and internal pluralism. This approach has been maintained by all U.S. administrations, whatever the precise terminology applied and whatever the state of U.S. Soviet relations at any particular juncture. Through a program of "differentiation" it was hoped that at least some countries could be drawn into mutually beneficial relationships with the West. During the 1970s, a rank order of Soviet bloc regimes was adopted whereby rewards obtained from the West became contingent upon more progressive domestic policies, such as respect for human rights, political and cultural liberalization, and expressions of national sovereignty. By devising a flexible sliding scale of rank, reward, and punishment it was hoped that diversity would be encouraged, Soviet interference peacefully reduced, and Western influences correspondingly increased.
The period of East-West détente in the 1970s formalized relationships with Eastern Europe on the assumption that the reduction of international tensions would help to liberalize the Soviet bloc. Détente maintained a linkage between internal human rights conditions and the content of external cooperation with Western countries. This carrot-and-stick approach was demonstrated in attempts to link trade and credits to the internal politics of communist states. For example, in the United States, the Jackson-Vanik amendment to the 1974 East-West Trade Act avowedly coupled trading relations with domestic civil rights; if the latter were deemed adequate by Congress, then the state in question could obtain favorable tariff and trading treatment.
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