ABSTRACT
Behrends: I would like to make some brief comments on the paper of my compatriot, Professor Albrecht. I find the model he proposes is at least as unrealistic as the unification of Germany. Eor instance, he said: the Europeans fear that greater war-fighting capability (meaning conventional capability) will increase the probability of war. I don’t think that the vast majority of Europeans feel that way. In fact, recent polls, taken in Germany in December 1984, have shown that 90% of all the people in West Germany and 86% of the young people, between the ages of 16 and 24, support German membership in NATO. The polls also indicate that 73% of the population believes that the US forces in Germany are essential to our security and that those forces should not be reduced. Also 87% of the population believes that the Bundeswehr makes peace more secure. So when Professor Albrecht speaks about Europeans he speaks about a small percentage of them.
