Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book provides an analytical appraisal of the "lessons" of the experiment in detente of the seventies. It examines the objectives and strategy of the Nixon-Kissinger approach to detente and notes the extent to which the Soviet and US conceptions of detente overlapped and diverged. The book traces the origins of the Basic Principles Agreement and explains how and why it came to contain important ambiguities regarding the objectives and modalities of crisis prevention. It describes the Soviet conception of detente and the Soviet leaders' motivation in seeking to formalize it in the Basic Principles document. The book also traces developments leading to the Egyptian-Syrian attack on Israel of October 6, 1973. It shows how the dynamics of escalation can operate to create confrontations that were unexpected and unwanted by one or both superpowers.