ABSTRACT
Non-offensive defence (NOD) became a reality sooner than anyone expected and under conditions few could have foreseen. The successors to the USSR will have to operate in a strategic environment that has changed almost beyond recognition. When 1988 Foreign Minister Edward Shevardnadze visited Copenhagen and Publicly praised NOD research conducted in Denmark, he could hardly count on the military professionals back home to second his appreciation—and for a good reason. Exactly one year later President Gorbachev, anxious to further improve Soviet relations with the outside world, announced at the UN significant unilateral reductions in Soviet military personnel accompanied by a cut in armaments. Many military professionals were increasingly worried about the growth of what they saw as the "other side's" offensive potential, the continued American presence in Europe, NATO's naval superiority and the strategic implications of a united Germany.
