Külpolitika - A Magyar Külügyi Intézet elméleti-politikai folyóirata - 1983 (10. évfolyam)

1983 / 1. szám - A tanulmányok orosz és angol nyelvű tartalmi kivonata

ticularly complicated is that some of the Chinese conditions affect other states as well.

The Congress did not mark a strategic change in Chinese foreign policy, but firmed changes that go beyond tactics and affect medium- term strategy.

The Congress confirmed the activity producing international policy of the CCP. Marxism and independence were declared to be the basis of relations between Communist parties. They did not engage in attacks on the Soviet Communist Party of the earlier kind.

The proposition of an “own way”, of a “specifically Chinese socialism” was proclaimed at the Congress. Its elements—it seems — are a distatorship of the people’s democracy type, a new economic policy, a revived policy of alliances, and a foreign policy focussed on independence.

László J. Kiss:

Methodological difficulties in comparing military strength

A comparison of military strength often serves given group and vested interests. This affects allies as well as the psycho-strategy of the military-industrial-scientific complex and also the endeavours of particular interest groups at home. Major western schools of thought are discussed and their major methodological failings are presented, as well as the objective difficulties in making East-West comparisons of either nuclear or conventional weapons.

The main sources of mutually contradictory evaluations are confining oneself to purely quantitative data and the deliberate, or unconscious neglect of certain security policy factors. Many military equilibrium concepts treat the starting figures as final, leaving out of account the military function of the armed forces, their inner structure, effectiveness and doctrinal background. Military equilibrium does not mean a symmetrical arithmetic identity of armed forces in every field, but equal value, the equilibrium of options andpotentialities which does not exclude disequilibria in particular areas within military equilibrium as such. In view of the structural requirements of the modernization of weaponry, their dynamic character a general absence of synchnonisation and disparities of military geography “equilibrium” cannot be simultaneously and precisely defined simultaneously on a global and regional level. What is really involved is not an exclusively objective evaluation but the deliberate lessening of the complexity of the military forces which confront each other, that is the definition of the factors of the dynamism of armaments, of the technical characteristics of new and existing weapons systems, and their systems and scenario roles, as well as, of course, of strategic, tactical and political options. Such a survey however demands a balance of perceptions, that is East-West political conditions which improve political visibility and further mutual confidence.

Borisz Szántó:

Scientific and technological progress and international power relations

The international division of labour is forging ahead, foreign trade competition is becoming keener, and while this is going on the system of international power relations is undergoing changes as well. Standards of scientific and technological development step ahead and become determining factors. Uneven economic, scientific and technological progress, and the resulting technological gap are now of importance for foreign policy.

Competition between capitalist countries extends to science and technology. In a number of aspects Japan and Western Europe threaten the first place of the US, and this also led to the potentiation of scientific and technological points of view in US foreign policy. The US has not given up hope of maintaining technological superiority, and does all it can to regain lost bastions from its capitalist rivals.

With unchanged intensity but doubtful effectiveness the US and its allies at the same time endeavour to hinder the development of the socialist countries, continuing a technological blockade that employs the methods of a rolling embargo.

Following economic polycentrism a world polycentric scientific and technological structure must also be accepted as an accomplished fact. Technological innovation will no doubt also lead to changes in the political structure. The need for accellerated technical progress turned technological innovation into an important economic and foreign policy factor.

For smaller countries as well technological innovation is the instrument of reaching a higher level of scientific and technical development and a more intensive rate ofinnova- tion. This will permit the production of marketable commodities and thus participation in a modern division of labour.

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