ABSTRACT
Given the interdependence within the East-West conflict no nation can pursue an autonomous national security policy. Rather, the members of both NATO and the Warsaw Pact are forced to cooperate within their respective alliances, and these two antagonistic alliances must co-operate with one another in at least some limited way. In Europe this system of long-term alliances, combined with the system of mutual nuclear deterrence, has to some extent mitigated the classical security dilemma which results from the lack of any truly enforceable and internationally recognized norm which would prevent nations from attacking each other. The danger of a nuclear war has raised the need for coexistence to a stabilizing imperative. However, the dilemma of nuclear deterrence has taken the place of the classical security dilemma. How can the security of an alliance be based on the threat of using nuclear weapons, when that use itself would be an irrational act?
