ABSTRACT
Nuclear deterrence is thus losing its previous rationale and East-West conventional stability is being replaced by all-European and subregional common security regimes or systems, as foreboded by the mandate for the Forum for Security Cooperation adopted by the 1992 Helsinki Summit. The nuclear systems and doctrines have always—especially in Europe— been linked with conventional stability. The Bush Initiative on nuclear disarmament of 27 September 1991—after the abortive coup in Moscow—constituted a further step towards SNF elimination, and was reciprocated by President Boris Yeltsin on 29 January 1992. The last consequence of the denuclearization of Central Europe Is a changed political role for Germany within NATO. To adapt the remaining arsenals and existing strategies to the requirements of common security and non-offensive defence (NOD) schemes will take time and imagination. The present threat perceptions and emerging strategies hardly meet all the standards of common security and NOD.
