In the Magazine

"Bolshevism was the unnatural product of a dislocated population at the beginning of the century", and conditions now favour "the return home of Russians to Europe". Soviet society has matured, with an educated middle class demanding better material conditions and closer links with the West, and less willing to tolerate the patent failure of one-party rule. This coincides with the view of the Soviet leadership, which sees the prime threat to their union as coming from Asia. Gorbachev's policy is one of 'controlled chaos', which aims to balance the public's desire for progress against its fear of a break-up of the union.

Recognition of the GDR by the FRG would be a "political masterstroke", in which merely formal separation would be outweighed by substantive unity on various social and economic issues. See also Margarita Mathiopoulos 'Peace would settle the German question' IHT 1 Nov 1989 p6.

Domestic political dissatisfaction with the premiership of Mrs Thatcher is largely confined to 'the chattering classes'. Her ten-year domination of British politics shows few signs of ending. The expression 'chattering classes' often expresses the contempt of the insider, who knows, for the outsider, who has to think

The moderates have a mandate in respect of economic policy, but are vulnerable to the hard-line anti-Western radicals in respect of foreign policy. The USA can do little but be cautious so as not to endanger the moderates' position.

Chile once boasted a longer history of stable democratic rule than most of its neighbors and much of Western Europe. Now it is the last major country on the South American continent to return to civilian government after a wave of authoritarianism. In December Chileans will have elected a new president after 16 years in the formidable grip of General Augusto Pinochet Ugarte. That election should set U.S.-Chilean relations, plagued by a history of intervention and mistrust, on a more constructive, cooperative course.