Unwanted Visionaries: The Soviet Failure in Asia at the End of the Cold War

Radchenko (The Atomic Bomb and the Origins of the Cold War) examines the downsides of Soviet overtures to Asian nations under the misguided leadership of Mikhail Gorbachev. Drawing on finely detailed research, he acknowledges the idealistic and practical aspects of Gorbachev's attempts to woo economic titans China and India from American domination. But he also points out the many missed opportunities and mishaps attached to Gorbachev's "Asia First" doctrine. Focusing on the period spanning Brezhnev's 1982 death to the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union, Radchenko examines the pressure and resistance of President Reagan's crusade against the "Russian Evil Empire," as well as the ideological and political disagreements of Russian officials. Gorbachev's Asian initiatives, which coincided with the plummet of the Russian economy and uprisings in Eastern Europe, were largely hit-and-miss%E2%80%94especially those with China, Japan, and India, which were marred by issues of mistrust, territory disputes, and technological transfers. Gorbachev's political ambitions outstripped his Asian outreach and his decentralization of power on the home-front, causing his foreign dialogues to be swallowed by a rising tide of domestic backlash. Analytical, objective, and large in scope, Radchenko's study of Soviet politics is essential reading for those seeking a realistic picture of the balance of global power. (Feb.)