Trade, Technology, and Soviet-American Relations (review)

BOOK REVIEWS 223 some of the strengths of the Soviet military and security apparatus. For example , forces were able to mobilize quickly and could conduct major operations away from Soviet population centers with no severe logistical problems. Collins, like Menon, shows that the invasion of Afghanistan largely followed a pattern in Soviet interventions. The Soviets were cautious, both in their preparations and the measures taken once they had gained control of the area. The arguments of the four authors lend support to a view that the Soviet Union's policies in the Third World are guided more by national interest than by ideology and have no long-term plan behind them. None of the authors implies , however, that Soviet aims in the Third world should be ignored by the United States. In this respect, the knowledge and insight of all four are welcome in a subject that generates much discussion but little insight. Trade, Technology, and Soviet-American Relations. Edited by Bruce Parrott. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1985. 394 pp. $35.00/cloth, $17.50/paper. Reviewed by Mary Heslin, SAIS M.A. 1985 and Editor, USSR Technology Update. U.S. attitudes toward technology trade with the Soviet Union suffer from a certain incoherence. While few U.S. policymakers have any idea of the level of technological development in the Soviet Union or the ability of the Soviets to assimilate advanced technology, all are concerned with the potential benefits to the Soviets of access to high-technology imports from the advanced nations of the West. Because of this confusion, the issue of restrictions on exports of technology tends to generate many words but few facts. Thus, the time is right for a thoughtful and thorough examination of the issues involved in U.S. exports of technology to the Soviet Union. Trade, Technology and Soviet-American Relations is a collection of essays produced as part of a year-long study conducted by the Georgetown University Center for Strategic and International Studies and edited by Bruce Parrott, director of Soviet Studies at SAIS. The book does an excellent job in separating the various issues involved, from technical questions like Soviet patterns of technology acquisition to political questions like the impact of U.S. restrictions on Atlantic Alliance relations. And it also succeeds in integrating these issues into a coherent analysis of the topic as a whole. Parrott and the other participants in the study are careful to differentiate between the ability of the Soviets to acquire technology from the permeable economies of the West and their ability to use what they obtain. The importance of this distinction is shown in the second part of the book, which is a series of case studies of various sectors of the Soviet economy. In George Holliday 's analysis of the automotive industry and S. E. Goodman's discussion of the computer industry, among others, the point is made that the Soviets cannot always put what they have obtained to good use. The authors conclude that, on the whole, imports of technology have had a "positive but limited" effect on the Soviet Union. The limitations stem from 224 SAIS REVIEW the rigid structure of the Soviet economy, which makes it difficult to integrate advanced products. In his chapter on the defense sector, an area of particular concern in the United States, Julian Cooper writes that while U.S. technology has helped the Soviet military buildup, the benefit has been relatively modest. He also maintains that U.S. defense experts have generally underestimated the Soviets' ability to develop advanced technology independently. While the first part of the book examines the history and domestic political context of Soviet technology trade with the West, the third part of the book covers the domestic and international setting for U.S. trade policy toward the Soviets in the area of high-technology products. Angela Stent provides a piece on the complicated topic of East-West economic relations and the Atlantic Alliance, an issue most apparent in the 1983 dispute between the United States and European nations over the gas pipeline built by the Soviets with Western European technology. And Gary Bertsch examines the factors in the U.S. political system that...