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War and Peace in the Nuclear Age (1987-12-25)
About this film
Georgii Shakhnazarov was a Soviet political scientist who became a close aide to Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev. Beginning the interview with a broad statement, he declares that the underpinnings of U.S.-Soviet conflict have usually been the result of "historical misunderstandings" rather than differences in ideology. He gives his views of the nature of socialism, which he interprets as much bigger than the variant found within the boundaries of the Soviet Union. Socialism will expand naturally, in his opinion, and he offers assurances that Moscow does not intend to spread it by force. Dr. Shakhnazarov goes on to describe the current positive Soviet attitude toward the fundamental changes in Eastern Europe. On the subject of nuclear weapons, he disagrees that they have helped the world escape war, although he remarks that they do have the effect of pushing societies to find ways to solve problems jointly. He then provides an overview of the development of Soviet thinking that nuclear weapons serve no practical, useful purpose. When prompted, he offers reasons why the West should not fear aggression by the Soviet Union - for example, the fact that the USSR already possesses plen…
Directors & creators
WGBH
Subjects
public broadcasting, AAPB, Georgii Shakhnazarov, Mikhail Gorbachev, Johan Galtung, WGBH, Club of Rome, Soviet Union, United States, Cold War, Nuclear weapons, Socialism, Perestroika, International relations, Eastern Europe, Nuclear proliferation, Ideology
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