ABSTRACT
There is wide agreement that in the military contingency planning for Europe too much emphasis is paid to possible early use of nuclear weapons. Measures to raise the nuclear threshold are in high demand. To raise the nuclear threshold, several suggestions have been made for the removal of battlefield nuclear weapons a certain distance East and West of the dividing line in central Europe. These suggestions are linked to the proposals for nuclear weapon-free zones in northern and southern Europe, and forming a zone free from nuclear weapons running all the way from the northern to the southern edge of the region. It lies in the nature of the disengagement concept that a battlefield nuclear weapon-free zone should be as wide as possible. A combined nuclear and conventional disengagement may not only raise the nuclear threshold but, at the same time, also enhance the effectiveness of conventional defence. The disengagement zone represents a ‘hardware’ approach to raising the nuclear threshold.
