The aim of this study is to identify the key features of how political processes at the final stage of the Cold War were represented in the American journal “Foreign Affairs” (1989-1991). The article examines expert assessments of the transformation of international relations and the internal situation in the USSR against the background of Perestroika and the collapse of the socialist system. The research novelty is defined by the fact that the publications of “Foreign Affairs” for 1989-1991 are examined for the first time in direct correlation with U.S. foreign policy priorities. This approach makes it possible to demonstrate how the journal’s rhetoric mirrored the strategic shift of the George H. W. Bush administration toward encouraging political changes in Eastern Europe and reframing the USSR from a negotiating partner to a declining global actor. The analysis demonstrates a consistent shift in “Foreign Affairs” discourse: from cautious evaluations of the Soviet internal crisis to the construction of a narrative about the collapse of communism and the victory of the West in the Cold War. The study also reveals ambivalence in the perception of the Soviet collapse, where triumphalist interpretations coexisted with the recognition of uncertainty in the emerging world order.