Realism Wins

Mr Leonid I. Brezhnev. Under Mr Gorbachev, the Soviets have been promoting an aggressive though hazy new plan for comprehensive international security, in which the UN would play a key role in monitoring, verification and peacekeeping. Mr Gorbachev has also suggested that rulings of the world court, now merely advisory, be made binding on U.N. member-nations, especially security council members. In his speech to the world body, Mr Gorbachev may expand upon previous Soviet proposals, which have included the establishment of a world space organisation, halving all nations’ earmarked troops for a standing army of U.N. peacekeepers, establishing a U.N. navy to escort commercial shipping in danger zones, and U.N. monitoring of disarmament and international arms sales. The US and other Western allies have lauded parts of the Soviet security proposals, but feel the whole package is too vague to endorse. A U.N. visit by a Soviet leader is a rarity — the foreign minister usually delivers the annual address to the general assembly. Between Khrushchev and Mr Gorbachev, the only other top-ranking Soviet visitor was then premier Alexei N. Kosygin, the head of the Soviet government apparatus but less powerful than party chief Brezhnev, who came to the UN in 1967 to support Arab complaints against Israel. Mr Kosygin held a summit with the U.S. president, Mr Lyndon B. Johnson. The thaw in East-West relations since Mr Gorbachev’s ascension to power is all the more striking when compared