ABSTRACT
The political upheaval in Eastern Europe raises the prospect of change in the military balance of conventional forces in Europe. The separation of security and military issues in the single European act of 1986 is somewhat artificial. In light of its historical significance in Central Europe, Austria could play a special role in helping to transform the smaller East European countries into a kind of buffer between Western Europe and the Soviet Union, which might be welcomed by the latter. Nationalism has been manifested by many Central European peoples, including Croatians, Czechs, Hungarians, Italians, Poles, Romanians, Serbs, and Slovaks Nationalistic and authoritarian developments in Eastern Europe could in turn have negative repercussions on Austria, both on its international position and on its domestic democratic institutions. In the Central European zone alone, over 30,000 individual pieces of equipment are involved, together with many items of unrestricted armaments.
