The British political scientist who argued Gorbachev's individual leadership was the decisive factor in transforming the Soviet system
Only rarely does an individual leader make a fundamental difference. Gorbachev was such a leader.
Emeritus Professor of Politics at Oxford and a leading scholar of Soviet and Russian politics. In The Gorbachev Factor (1996), he established the 'individual leader' thesis against structural determinism, arguing that Gorbachev's personal convictions and political choices were the decisive force behind the transformation of the Soviet system and the end of the Cold War. The thesis became one pole of the subsequent historical debate and remains among the most influential interpretations of perestroika.
Career Timeline
- 1964–1971Lecturer, University of Glasgow
- 1967–1968British Council exchange scholar, Moscow State University
- 1971–1989Lecturer in Soviet Institutions, St Antony's College, Oxford
- 1989–2005Professor of Politics, Oxford University
- 1996Publishes The Gorbachev Factor
- 2005–Emeritus Professor of Politics, Oxford University