Introduction

While Western security is normally regarded as indivisible by those responsible for its maintenance, politicians, military planners and analysts have methodically divided the ‘West’ into regions and categories. NATO authorities pay hommage to this tendency both formally and informally: for practical needs, through the elaboration of command structures, and, of more dubious utility, through the development of loosely ‘military’ terms that refer to prospective areas of engagement. Thus, within Europe, attention is paid in varying degrees to the defence of the Central Front and to the Flanks, both Northern and Southern.