USA-USSR: Back to detente?

Since the beginning of detente in the sixties the United States’ economic policy toward the Soviet Union has steered a zig-zag course. The latest spectacular step was President Reagan’s lift—apparently without an adequate quid pro quo—of the embargo on grain and phosphates imposed by his predecessor in response to the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan. Our author explains the interplay of different interests and schools of thought bearing on trade policy as an instrument for pursuing foreign policy objectives.