the Gorbachev factor
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A thesis advanced by British political scientist Archie Brown in his 1996 book The Gorbachev Factor, arguing that Mikhail Gorbachev's individual agency was the decisive variable in ending the Cold War and transforming the Soviet system. Brown contends that structural crises, American military pressure, and popular pressure from below were secondary: Gorbachev pursued glasnost, perestroika, and New Thinking diplomacy out of genuine conviction, not mere necessity. The thesis stands as an agent-centered third interpretation between structural accounts (Zubok, Gaddis) and the triumphalist school that credits Reagan's hard line with winning the Cold War.
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- notevenpast.org Marcus Golding review: Brown argues the end of the Soviet system was exclusively due to Gorbachev's political and economic reforms, with his individual agency as the most crucial factor.
- explaininghistory.org Positions Brown's Gorbachev's Agency thesis against structural accounts (Gaddis, Zubok) and the Reagan triumphalist school, noting Brown's argument that Gorbachev chose restraint on genuine ideological conviction.
- prospectmagazine.co.uk Brown's own words: 'Gorbachev not only changed Soviet foreign and domestic policy fundamentally, he spearheaded a conceptual revolution' — explaining the human factor as decisive.
- Wikipedia (EN) Establishes Archie Brown's scholarly authority, The Gorbachev Factor (1996, Oxford University Press), and his related work The Human Factor (2020).