ABSTRACT
Under classical strategic conditions, before the advent of nuclear weapons, force could be conceived as a general instrument of national policy. The present situation in Europe is not classical; it is sub-nuclear in the sense that all acts of warfare, even those which involve only non-nuclear forces, would take place in the shadow of the nuclear arsenals of the two superpowers. The European states are trapped in the sub-nuclear situation because they have become the focal point of the global confrontation between the superpowers. Several proposals dealing with Central Europe combine dispersed attrition forces with mobile units of the present type. Under present conditions in Europe the purpose of military forces is not to fight wars but to prevent them.
