ABSTRACT
The West's overriding strategic objective has been, and should continue to be, the creation of a cooperative global community engaged in productive competition, operating within bounds set by mutually accepted constraints ranging from tacit understandings to binding treaties. The Soviet Union has nuclear capabilities that dwarf those of any state except the United States, Western Europe will, continue to rely on the United States for protection. An increasing number of states, including the Soviet Union, have come to acknowledge the remarkable proposition that the human rights of their own citizens are legitimate interest of other states. Cooperative security has been brought immeasurably closer to reality by the events of 1989, and these events point to what must be done to realize the promise they hold out. A reformulation of the conceptual framework underlying security policy is of particular importance for the United States.
