POL300

Week 3 Discussion

Roskin discusses three theories leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989.

-Choose one of these theories and assess whether it is related to the country's internal or external foreign policy at the time.

The economy was one of the greater reason for the collapse of the Soviet Union. In the middle 1980's about seventy percent of the industrial output of the Soviet Union was going to the military.

Soviet agriculture had stagnated in the 1980's but the demand for grain in the cities was increasing. It was necessary to buy grain in the international market. While the price of petroleum was high it was feasible to finance the purchase of grain from internal sources. When the price of petroleum fell in the last 1980's the Soviet Union needed to borrow the...