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.
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Long the bulwark of the transatlantic security relationship, NATO now faces a threat from within Europe itself. The proposed EU constitution makes clear that the new Europe seeks to balance rather than complement U.S. power-making European political integration the greatest challenge to U.S. influence in Europe since World War II. Washington must begin to adapt accordingly.
