ABSTRACT
This chapter focuses on five aspects of the changing European strategic landscape: the implications of democratization for European security and stability that is the political dimension of non-offensive defense; and the growing priority of national over collective security interests and the changing role of military-political alliances. These also include the problem of managing pre-emptive and unilateral disarmament; the changing strategic role of Eastern Europe; and the implications of all of European security issues for conventional arms control. The West can play an active role in sustaining and promoting the democratization of security affairs in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. The democratic revolution has accelerated two trends in Eastern Europe that emerged in the 1980s: the nationalization of security interests and the gradual devolution of the role of the armed forces. The staggering unilateral force cuts in East European military forces are closely related to the nationalization of security policy.
