U.S. Foreign Policy and European Security; New Conventional Weapons and Western Defence

The columnist Meg Greenfield wrote in 1980: "I have been trying to think of a time when the Alliance was in array." That theme-the durability of NATO through disruption and differing interests-is the center of Cyr's brief historical essay. His material is not new, but his summary is readable and his reminder apt. The Bellany-Huxley volume, the result of a project at Lancaster University's Centre for the Study of Arms Control and International Security, addresses a recent "disruption"-the development of new conventional technology. Many of the chapters are specifically British in perspective, but several raise issues for the alliance as a whole. For instance, Phil Williams argues that some new technologies-conventionally armed cruise and ballistic missiles in particular-might enhance deterrence but could also make escalation more rapid if war occurred. Thus, they would not raise the nuclear threshold in Europe; they might lower it.