ABSTRACT
To begin with Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM), ever since the creation of that organization in 1949-1950, there have been significant philosophic differences between most Europeans and Americans on the role of trade in East-West relations. The matter was lifted essentially out of the COCOM, or for that matter, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization context. A major American military presence in Europe, mainly in the Federal Republic of Germany, added a necessary component to the credibility of the United States commitment. The Mikhail Gorbachev phenomenon and the dramatic political and economic changes in Eastern Europe during 1989 have obviously added radically new elements to the picture. The important question that will shape both the relationship of the United States to Europe and the kind of Europe that emerges in the years ahead is the future of the Atlantic Alliance itself.
