Endgame of the Long Cold War
... War goals. The intention of the Soviet side in 1986 was to end the Cold War, but the intention of the Western side was not merely to end it even on favorable terms, but to win it. There were elements in the West, who were satisfied with the way the Cold War seemingly ended, because it looked like the Russian side had unilaterally surrendered. Even then, there was no attempt to implement the Kissingerian formula of drawing in Russia and China into co-managing a world order that was unstable because of the emergence of or transition to multipolarity. The evidence was in 1991 itself, when the last-ditch Franco-Russian formula to avoid or delay a war in the Gulf was brushed aside or ignored. The world order was ...