Building Confidence during Peace and War

Abstract

The Confidence Building Measures assessed in this Note are all fundamentally aimed at avoiding war or escalation. Although avoidance of war and escalation are high priorities for the United States, they are not only national objectives. If they were, there would be no crisis management dilemma. Rather, it is the tension between war avoidance and the protection of other U.S. interests that makes this problem so complex and subtle and, therefore, not amenable to formula solutions. This is further complicated by periodic changes in public and policymaker attitudes about the relative importance of war avoidance, defending allies, stopping Soviet expansionism, and other issues. The difficulty-for policymakers and analysts like-lies in balancing these and similar considerations. In many cases, traditional crisis management techniques may be more appropriate and effective than formal CBMs in balancing these competing interests. Keywords: Foreign policy, USSR, United States, Government, Cold war potential, Prevention.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1988
Accession Number
ADA220507

Entities

People

  • Alan J. Vick

Organizations

  • RAND Corporation

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Counter WMD
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Agreements
  • Air Defense
  • Antisubmarine Warfare
  • Arms Control
  • Ballistic Missile Submarines
  • Ballistic Missiles
  • Defense Systems
  • Geography
  • International Organizations
  • International Security
  • Military Operations
  • Naval Operations
  • Navy
  • Treaties
  • United States
  • Warfare
  • Warning Systems

Readers

  • Strategic Security Studies