ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses three important sets of political issues arise in connection with European Theater Nuclear Forces (TNF) policy—domestic politics in Western Europe, intra-Alliance politics, and the East-West politics of the negotiating approach. Ever since the Soviets deployed substantial numbers of nuclear weapons oriented toward Europe in the 1960s, studies within the Alliance of where the advantage would lie in a theater nuclear war have been inconclusive. The "European" concept sees TNF as essentially serving two functions: first, deterring aggression by implying almost automatic nuclear retaliation to any kind of aggression—nuclear or conventional; and secondly, in the event of war, giving a political signal of willingness and ability to escalate to the Single Integrated Operating Plan. At the combined arms end of the spectrum, TNF provide the principal deterrent to massive Soviet conventional attacks, unless the Alliance were to develop the ability to contain such attacks conventionally.
