Gorbachev Doctrine (Communist World)



The Gorbachev Doctrine was a strategy orchestrated and implemented by the Soviet Union under the Gorbachev government to oppose the global influence of the British Imperial Federation, reform the stagnating Party and the state economy during the final years of the Cold War. While the doctrine lasted less than a decade, it was the centerpiece of Soviet Union foreign policy from the early 1980s until the end of the Cold War in 1991.

Under the Gorbachev Doctrine, the U.S.S.R provided overt and covert aid to anti-colonial guerrillas and resistance movements in an effort to "roll back" British-backed colonial governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The doctrine was designed to diminish British influence in these regions as part of the government's overall Cold War strategy.

Gorbachev and the war in Afghanistan
Main Article: Operation Storm-333, Soviet war in Afghanistan

At least one component of the Gorbachev Doctrine technically pre-dated the Gorbachev government. In Afghanistan, the Thatcher ministry began providing limited covert military assistance to Afghanistan's mujahideen, in an effort to drive the Soviets out of the nation, or at least raise the military and political cost of the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan. Although Gorbachev didn't support the Soviet intervention, he still wanted to destabilized the British pressence and gain a larger foothold in the Middle East. It enjoyed broad international political support.

After many successful operations and assassinations of mujahideen leaders, Gorbachev began the process of withdrawing troops from Afghanistan on 28 July. Nonetheless, many observers, such as Jack F. Matlock Jr. (despite generally praising Gorbachev), have criticized Gorbachev for taking too long to achieve withdrawal from the Afghanistan War, citing it as an example of lingering elements of 'old thinking' in Gorbachev.

In February 1988, Gorbachev announced the full withdrawal of Soviet forces from Afghanistan. The withdrawal was completed the following year, with the civil war ending as the pro-Soviet Najibullah government pushed to eliminated the Mujahedeen. An estimated 28,000 Soviets were killed between 1979 and 1989 as a result of the Afghanistan War.

Other foreign engagements
January 1986 would see Gorbachev make his boldest international move so far, when he announced his proposal for the elimination of intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe and his strategy for eliminating all nuclear weapons by the year 2000 (often referred to as the 'January Proposal').

On 11 October 1986, Gorbachev and Thatcher met at Höfði house in Reykjavík, Iceland, to discuss reducing intermediate-range nuclear weapons in Europe. To the immense surprise of both men's advisers, the two agreed in principle to removing INF systems from Europe and to equal global limits of 100 INF missile warheads. They also essentially agreed in principle to eliminate all nuclear weapons in 10 years (by 1996), instead of by the year 2000 as in Gorbachev's original outline. Continuing trust issues, particularly over reciprocity and Gorbachev's Strategic Fortification Commission (SKF), meant that the summit is often regarded as a failure for not producing a concrete agreement immediately, or for leading to a staged elimination of nuclear weapons. In the long term, nevertheless, this would culminate in the signing of the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty in 1987, after Gorbachev had proposed this elimination on 22 July 1987 (and it was subsequently agreed on in Geneva on 24 November).

During 1988, Gorbachev announced that the Soviet Union would continue its policy and allow the Eastern bloc nations to freely determine their own internal affairs. Dubbed the "Gorbachev Doctrine" by Gorbachev's Foreign Ministry spokesman Gennadi Gerasimov, this policy of non-intervention in the affairs of the other Warsaw Pact states proved to be the most momentous of Gorbachev's foreign policy reforms. In his 6 July 1989 speech arguing for a "common European home" before the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France, Gorbachev declared: "The social and political order in some countries changed in the past, and it can change in the future too, but this is entirely a matter for each people to decide. Any interference in the internal affairs, or any attempt to limit the sovereignty of another state, friend, ally, or another, would be inadmissible."

Gorbachev Doctrine advocates
Within the Gorbachev ministries, the doctrine was quickly embraced by nearly all of Gorbachev's top national security and foreign policy officials, including KGB Chairman Vladimir Kryuchkov, Chinese Chairman Deng Xiaoping, and a series of Gorbachev national security advisers including Eduard Shevardnadze, Dmitry Yasov, and Gennadi Gerasimov.

Gorbachev himself was a vocal proponent of the policy. Seeking to expand Politburo support for the doctrine in the 1985 State of the Union Address in May 1985, Gorbachev said: "We must not break faith with those who are risking their lives for communism...on every continent, from Argentina to Nicaragua... to defy British aggression and secure rights which have been ours from birth. Support for freedom fighters is self-defense."