Home › Features › Essays › Europe's Security Dilemmas

Europe's Security Dilemmas

Christoph Bertram
Summer 1987
Summary -- 

NATO is facing new challenges; there is confusion and uncertainty about its security requirements in the light of Gorbachev's nuclear disarmament proposals, and a need for a more concentrated effort to meet these challenges, which cannot be left to the USA alone. A common strategy for deterrence is a pre-requisite for a common strategy for arms reductions.

Christoph Bertram is the Diplomatic Correspondent of the West German weekly Die Zeit. From 1974 to 1982 he was the Director of the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

We're sorry, but Foreign Affairs does not have the copyright to display this article online.

Related

Essay, Fall 1987
Military Security in Europe
Jonathan Dean

In the light of the anticipated INF agreement the question is whether confrontation is entering a genuine phase of de-escalation or merely a tactical one. Most NATO commanders agree that a surprise attack by conventional Soviet forces is improbable. NATO should develop a plan for exploiting the potential for reductions in conventional weapons and make a serious effort to achieve an agreement. There may be room for trade-offs in economic credits and managerial skills for large-scale Soviet force reductions.

Read
Essay, Spring 1988
Defending Post-INF Europe
Jeffrey Record and David B. Rivkin, Jr.

Defends the traditional, pessimistic evaluation of NATO's conventional capabilities against revisionists, and argues that "NATO is highly unlikely to make the conventional force improvements seemingly dictated by the INF treaty". Predicts a Soviet arms control offensive upon "a vulnerable and divided NATO... the alliance has painted itself into a corner, and the paint will not dry". Despite all this, NATO will continue to prevent war in Europe.

Read
Comment, Sep/Oct 2004
A Forward-Looking Partnership
Robert E. Hunter

The recent U.S. experiment in unilateralism has shown the limitations of "coalitions of the willing." Washington should reaffirm its commitment to the Atlantic alliance and act with others when it can, alone only when it must.

Read
Cover image

In the Magazine

November/December 2009, 6, 88
Essay
The Dollar and the Deficits
C. Fred Bergsten

The global economic crisis has revealed the folly of large U.S. budget and trade deficits, as well as of the strong dollar that makes them possible. If it is serious about recovery, the United States must balance the budget, stimulate private saving, and embrace a declining dollar.
Read