Contents
Foreword: Myths That Mislead
Jack F. Matlock Jr.
Author’s Preface
Part One. Reminiscence: Ten Years Inside the Empire
Introduction to Part One
1. Initial Encounters with the Other Side
2. Working Levels of the Soviet Regime
3. Stagnation and Disaffection
4. The Beginning of the End
Part Two. Reflection: A Neglected Psychological Perspective
Introduction to Part Two
5. Comprehending Another Political World
6. Formation of the Soviet Conception of Governance
7. The Conception’s Evolution Under Khrushchev and Brezhnev
8. Gorbachev and the Conception’s Terminal Phase
Part Three. Relevance: Psychological Milieu and Current Foreign Policy Issues
Introduction to Part Three
9. Reappraising the Cold War’s End and the Empire’s Fall I: Key Pieces of the Puzzle
10. Reappraising the Cold War’s End and the Empire’s Fall II: Fitting the Pieces Together
11. Empire and Democracy in Post-Soviet Russia
12. An Analytical Blind Spot and Its Consequences
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Dick Combs spent many years as a Foreign Service officer, from 1966 to 1989, with three tours of duty at the U.S. embassy in Moscow during the height of the Cold War. He later served as a Congressional foreign policy adviser to Senator Sam Nunn and as research professor at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
“Dick Combs was by training and experience a leading analyst of
Soviet doctrine and behavior within the U.S. from the early 1960s
until the late 1990s. His book combines scholarly exegesis with
historical narrative. It will interest anyone seeking to make sense
of the sudden collapse of the Soviet state. Its account of
decision-making and advocacy within the Department of State and the
National Security Council is equally compelling. In short, Mr.
Combs has made a significant contribution to the international
history of the twentieth century.”—Richard H. Ullman,David K.E.
Bruce Professor of International Affairs, Emeritus, Princeton
University
“Synthesizing memoir, history, and policy analysis, Dick Combs’s
book combines an instructive inside account of a high-ranking
American diplomat’s years in the Soviet Union with a critical
analysis of the evolution of Soviet thinking about world affairs.
It also analyzes American thinking about the USSR and applies the
lessons of all this to understand post-Soviet Russian politics and
foreign policy, and American misperceptions thereof.”—William
Taubman,Amherst College
“Dick Combs’s study is a welcome addition to the many memoirs and
scholarly studies devoted to the end of the Cold War and the demise
of the Soviet Union. Readers will be rewarded with a fresh view,
penetrating insights, and—equally important—a very good read.”—Jack
F. Matlock, Jr.
“Throughout the post-Soviet period, the Nunn-Lugar program has been
a primary vehicle through which the new Russian-American
relationship has evolved. Dick Combs was one of the original
conceptualizers of that program, born of his understanding of the
deep-seated social and psychic strains unleashed by the Soviet
collapse, but also a major facilitator of the policy’s application
through his mastery of the Russian language and his appreciation of
the sensibilities of the Russian people and their leaders.”—Senator
Richard Lugar
“I greatly benefited from Dick Combs’s deep understanding of Soviet
culture and thinking during his service as my U.S. Senate foreign
policy advisor. His depth of knowledge and balanced judgment are
clearly reflected in this book, which offers fresh, persuasive
analysis of the end of the Cold War and the fall of the Soviet
Union. Policymakers, academics, and the public can draw important
foreign policy lessons from Combs’s insightful account.”—former
U.S. senator Sam Nunn
“Overall, Inside the Soviet Alternate Universe is a sophisticated,
well-reasoned argument about the demise of the USSR and the
problems of dealing with different mindsets and cultures. As such,
Combs’s book deserves study by historians, analysts, and
politicians alike.”—Jonathan M. House History: Reviews of New Books
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