The most original and significant of these books on the Atlantic Alliance is the first. Bringing together a group of Japanese and American experts, it seeks to identify the common concerns of Asian, European and American security. The broadened global horizon of the Japanese is the most interesting dimension, although the Japanese-American link and dialogue remains, understandably, far stronger than the Japanese-European connection. Timothy Ireland's work is a historical treatise which makes the point that the original American planning regarding NATO envisioned a coalition of strengthened European states as a balance to Soviet power. Only after the creation of the Alliance and the start of the Korean War did it become clear that the United States would have to establish a more permanent military presence in Europe. The Kaplan-Clawson book consists of yet another series of conference papers which are too wide-ranging to be of more than routine importance.