Gorbachev's Economic Strategy in the Third World

Giovanni Graziani examines Gorbachev's reforms in terms of economic relations with the Third World and presents a detailed and sophisticated statistical analysis of Soviet economic assistance and trade. This book critically evaluates all the statistical data from Soviet and United Nations sources and presents the changing Soviet attitude toward indebtedness and the growing dissatisfaction expressed by both the Third World and the U.S.S.R. over the management of Soviet aid.

The author notes a contradiction between Gorbachev's strategy and statistical evidence for the first years of his office, but stresses that the recent moves to trade with South Korea and other Asian countries are bound to affect the Soviet geographical pattern of trade. His estimates show the increasing importance of agricultural products and fuels in Soviet imports and of military equipment and fuels in its exports. Particularly interesting is what Graziani calls the oil imbroglio, a triangular trade pattern in which the U.S.S.R. has increased its imports of crude oil from the Third World for reexport to the West in order to stabilize its export earnings in hard currencies threatened by falling oil prices. The book concludes that no expansion of Soviet economic ties with the Third World is foreseen in the short run and that eventual Soviet participation in international economic organizations might further entail new conflicts with the Third World.

List of contents

The Economics of Soviet Policy in the Third World
Soviet Economic Assistance to Developing Countries
The Geographical Orientation of Trade
The Commodity Composition of Trade
Trade Balances and Payments Arrangements
New Forms of Economic Cooperation
In Search of Strategy: Obstacles and Prospects
Index

About the author

GIOVANNI GRAZIANI is Associate Professor of International Economics at the University of Brescia, Italy. He has written extensively on the U.S.S.R., on East European foreign trade, and on international economic relations.

Product details

• Authors: Giovanni Graziani, Graziani Giovanni
• Publisher: Bloomsbury
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 15.02.1990
• EAN: 9780275935399
• ISBN: 978-0-275-93539-9
• Series: Praeger Security International
• Subjects: Social sciences, law, business > Business > Miscellaneous; POLITICAL SCIENCE / International Relations / General, POLITICAL SCIENCE / Public Policy / Economic Policy, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Development / Economic Development, International Relations, Developing Countries, Central / national / federal government policies, Development economics & emerging economies, Former Soviet Union, USSR (Europe), USSR, Soviet Union, Development economics and emerging economies, Central government policies, POLITICAL SCIENCE / World / Russian & Soviet, Global South / Developing countries, security studies