02323cam a2200397 i 4500 rnd000000000048551 RAND 920212s1990 cau b 000 0 eng d 90171440 0833017209 RAND/N-3090-RC (Sirsi) a190528 $23.00 CstmoR CstmoR e-ur--- e------ HF1558.15.E8 V36 1990 Oudenaren, John van. author. Political consultation agreements in Soviet-West European relations / John Van Oudenaren. Santa Monica, CA : RAND, 1990. ix, 37 pages ; 28 cm text txt rdacontent computer c rdamedia unmediated n rdamedia online resource cr rdacarrier volume nc rdacarrier A RAND note ; 3090 "March 1990." Includes bibliographical references. This Note discusses one of the less visible but increasingly important aspects of Soviet-West European relations: the network of consultation agreements that Mikhail Gorbachev and Foreign Minister Eduard Shevardnadze inherited from the Brezhnev period and that they have worked to expand and deepen. These agreements provide for institutionalized political contact at the subministerial level; they thus supplement contact through traditional diplomatic channels and summit and foreign ministerial meetings. The author briefly examines the traditional role of obligatory consultation in European diplomacy, traces important antecedents to the current wave of Soviet interest in consultation agreements, analyzes the likely reasons for the Soviet interest in concluding such agreements, and outlines the prospects for this evolving diplomatic institution. An appendix contains a list of Soviet consultations with selected NATO countries that took place between 1980 and 1989. Also available on the internet via WWW in PDF format. Description based on print version record. Europe Foreign economic relations Soviet Union. Soviet Union Foreign economic relations Europe. Rand Corporation. Rand note ; 3090. Online Access http://www.rand.org/pubs/notes/N3090/ 599311 599311