Command economics behind Soviet naval diplomacy

A command economy can direct resources toward a chosen objective with considerable efficiency. The difficulty in this argument is selecting that objective: a narrow range of ideas can lead to an expensive commitment to an inefficient approach. A capitalist system permits competing proposals, including wasteful ones, with the expectation that workable and affordable ideas will survive. Communism and socialism are distinguished as separate ideologies, as are fascism and conservatism, before Soviet and fascist economic systems are compared as forms of state control. For a Soviet system relying on resources it controlled, long-term survival required more territory and access, a change of aims, or some integration with the global economy. That interpretation connects economic policy to the pursuit of allies and friendly neutrals at sea.