ABSTRACT
The much-debated flexible response strategy is fundamental to North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) defense. NATO has two and one-half times the gross national product and over one and one-half times the population of the Warsaw Pact. Behind the scenes, NATO is continually trying to foster better arms cooperation through the Conference of National Armaments Directors—. If European NATO members can be induced to work toward a rationalized European defense-procurement effort in place of their many separate efforts, waste, duplication, and inefficiency will be eliminated and investment will become more focused and efficient. The Europeans worry that the program will be an expensive "buy American" scheme. European allies have been calling for a more balanced "two-way street" in armaments trade, which runs about seven to one in favor of the United States. At the Defense Planning Committee ministerial meeting a month ago, Secretary of Defense Weinberger pledged in very strong terms that the United States was committed to that two-way street.
