ABSTRACT
The Mediterranean's strategic renaissance has been prompted by several factors, including a dramatic increase in Soviet naval deployments and capabilities in the region, paralleling a 1979 US The Mediterranean washes the shores of eighteen nations with a total population approaching 300 million people. Although the Mediterranean is not a large body of water, it touches three continents—Europe, Africa, and Asia. Control of the Mediterranean Sea requires dominance over the various narrow straits and adjacent coastal areas. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak's recent reopening of diplomatic relations with Moscow creates the possibility that the Egyptian government might oppose any Israeli efforts to assist North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) in a Mediterranean contingency and that Israel might risk retaliation from the Soviet Union. TSAMS air threat requires that NATO pay greater attention to theater air defense and increase its efforts at modernizing land-based air assets in the region.
