HIST 410N WEEK 7: CASE STUDY: MIKHAIL GORBACHEV’S 1988 UN SPEECH DISCUSSION

CASE STUDY: MIKHAIL GORBACHEV’S 1988 UN SPEECH DISCUSSION – If the pace of improving US-Soviet relations seemed rapid, Mikhail Gorbachev’s speech to the United Nations General Assembly would shift the process into overdrive.  In this remarkable oration, which you can find by clicking on the link below,Gorbachev emphatically declared that all nations must have the freedom to choose their own destiny, that ideology had no place in foreign affairs, and that great powers should renounce the use of force in international relations.  Review his speech and answer in essay form the following questions:

1. Why did Gorbachev choose the United Nations as his forum for this speech?
2. What did Gorbachev mean by “de-ideologizing relations among states? What implications did this have for superpower relations?
3. Why did he say that “force no longer can…be an instrument of foreign policy”? What implications did this have for the Soviet bloc?
4. What did he foresee as the future role of the superpowers in the world and the future relationship between them?

This assignment must be in APA formatting, complete with an introduction, body, and conclusion. All sources must be cited and referenced. As a guideline, the assignment should be approximately 3-5 pages in length, including the title page and reference page.

CASE STUDY: MIKHAIL GORBACHEV’S 1988 UN SPEECH DISCUSSION SAMPLE ASSIGNMENT

Mikhail Gorbachev’s 1988 UN Speech

Mikhail Gorbachev is an important figure not just in the Russian history but also worldwide considering that whatever decisions he took didn’t just impact the political scenario of Russia but whole world. He was born in 20^th century and entered the political scene of Russia during the era of Soviet Union. This paper is an attempt to closely analyze the speech given by him in the United Nations in the year 1988 (McCauley, 2013).

The United Nations

There were number of reasons behind the leader choosing United Nations as the preferred platform for delivering this speech. First and foremost this was a platform that would allow him to not just address one community but the whole world as UN is a nationwide entity. Second he was strong supporter of peace and wanted to communicate to various nations across the globe that Soviet Union was also in favor of that. This platform allowed him to communicate his peace making position more clearly and to large number of nations. United Nations is where all the powerful and authoritative nations would assemble and that was a considerable reason too behind selecting this platform. Fourth and last reason was that this speech was made in USA with whom Russia had peaceful ties and by making this speech there he further strengthened those ties.