ABSTRACT
The idea of non-offensive defence (NOD) was a child of the Cold War. It developed during the late 1970s and 80s as a synthesis between previously antagonistic lines of thought in Strategic Studies and Peace Research. The NOD synthesis of antagonistic positions was an important step towards a more balanced thinking about the realities of military security under conditions of high interdependence. The terrible cost that territorial defence inflicts on the defenders, and the risk of NOD policies supporting conditions for civil war in weak states are both revealed by the Yugoslav experience. The steady political and economic integration of the security agenda community makes defence policy per se, including NOD, largely irrelevant for the whole set of international relations among the group of countries. The states of Eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union may well present the best short-term prospects for NOD.
