NATO: Agenda for the Next Four Years
Abstract
The Rand NATO workshop brought together a small group of Americans and Europeans for a candid exchange on the problems likely to face the Atlantic alliance between 1981 and 1985. The participants represented a cross-section of the official and nonofficial strategic community on the two sides of the Atlantic. Europe was represented by participants from Britain, Belgium, France, and the Federal Republic of Germany. The workshop was held in Washington, DC on June 10-11, 1981, shortly after NATO's foreign ministers had met in Rome. As a consequence, the workshop discussion was heavily laden with references to the principal issue on the agenda of that meeting: the implementation of NATO's "two-track" decision on modernization and the control of long-range theater nuclear forces (LRTNF). By the time of the workshop, the LRTNF question had assumed a political importance far transcending its original focus on defense and arms control, and everybody was talking about the growing pacifist and neutralist movements in Europe and Soviet attempts to derail the modernization program. In the view of workshop participants, these challenges only heightened the need to carry through with the modernization program. No one advocated abandoning LRTNF. On this and other issues, the workshop discussions mirrored the problem facing NATO decision makers, who agree broadly on overall goals but disagree, often fundamentally, on how to achieve them, in particular on how to manage the increasingly vocal opposition to their policies among elements of their respective publics. In the interest of fostering a candid exchange, the workshop discussions were held off the record. For this reason, this report identifies only the authors of invited papers and two other participants in connection with what they said. Because the discussions clearly illustrated the differences between the American and European views, however, speakers are identified as either American or European.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1982
- Accession Number
- ADA483833
Entities
People
- James M. Thomson
Organizations
- RAND Corporation