The Afghanistan war and the breakdown of the Soviet Union

The breakdown of the Soviet Union surprised most scholars of international relations, comparative politics, and Soviet politics. Existing explanations attribute the breakdown of the Soviet Union to the reformist leadership of Gorbachev, and/or to systemic factors. These explanations do not focus on the key contribution of the war in Afghanistan. This is surprising since ma ny scholars view wars as key causal factors in empire breakdown and regime change. We argue that the war in Afghanistan was a key factor, though not t he only cause, in the breakdown of the Soviet Union. The war impacted Sovie t politics in four reinforcing ways: (1) Perception effects. it changed the perceptions of leaders about the efficacy of using the military to hold th e empire together and to intervene in foreign countries; (2) Military effec ts: it discredited the Red Army, coated cleavage between the party and the military, and demonstrated that the Red Army was not invincible, which embo ldened the non Russian republics to push for independence; (3) Legitimacy e ffects. it provided non-Russians with a common cause to demand independence since they viewed this war as a Russian war fought by non Russians against Afghans, and (4) Participation effects. it created new forms of political participation, started to transform the press/media before glasnost, initia ted the first shots of glasnost, and created a significant mass of war vete rans (Afghansti) who formed new civil organizations weakening the political hegemony of the communist party.