The Bear on the Prowl: Moderately Greedy,Moderately Strong

Abstract

Dunér, B. The Bear on the Prowl: Moderately Greedy, Moderately Strong. Coop eration and Conflict, XX, 1984, 23-40.

The Soviet Union long remained fairly passive with regard to events in the Third World. Such is no longer the case. Soviet relations with the developing world have a strong military bent, the principal expression thereof being its military interventions in conflicts between developing countries. Many see the Soviet Union as a powerful and voracious predator which is beginning to stray far outside its traditional East European hunting grounds into the Third World to supply its needs. The validity of such ideas is tested in this article. It is shown how the assessment of Soviet interven tionism depends on the perspective. It is alleged that there is no general, practically useful knowledge of the motives behind the interventions. Moreover, the thesis is pursued that the Soviet Union's capacity to intervene has indeed increased but there is a risk of exaggerating this capacity, especially in so far as the Soviet Union's relations with allied Communist states are not judged aright.