The Military-industrial Complex And Its Impact On Soviet Foreign Policy

The development of the Soviet military-industrial complex dates back to the Stalinist period,and as a special interest group,it had a profound impact on Soviet political life.After its germination during the Stalinist period and development during the Khrushchev era,it finally took shape and reached its peak state of development after Brezhnev came to power.The leadership headed by Brezhnev contributed to the development of the Soviet military-industrial complex during this period to such an extent that it expanded out of political control at a later stage,which limited the development of the national economy and led to serious deformations in the socio-economic structure.In the process of foreign policy making,the members of the military-industrial complex and its representatives exercised a more stable control and influence over the formulation of Soviet foreign policy through the "small group mentality",which largely contributed to the formulation and implementation of some armed interventions and hard-line foreign policies during this period.The extreme expansion of the power of the military-industrial complex indirectly or directly influenced Soviet foreign policy and brought the Soviet Union a military status equal to that of the United States,but it also contributed to the deterioration of the international situation from the late 1970 s to the early 1980 s,and at the same time laid a great deal of uncertainty about the fate of the collapse of the Soviet Union later.This paper takes the military-industrial complex under Brezhnev as a variable and combines it with case studies to discuss the influence of the military-industrial complex on Soviet foreign policy in the policy-making process,and summarizes its reflections and inspirations for China’s military-civilian integration process and great power diplomacy with Chinese characteristics.