ABSTRACT
The constant elements, factors which have not changed over time, are mainly structural in nature. The Atlantic Ocean separates the United States from its European allies and from the point of confrontation with the other superpower. Western Europe is still incapable of guaranteeing its own security and continues to rely on the military potential of the United States for protection. Some Western analysts ascribe a purely defensive function to the military power of the Soviet Union. There is no well-developed literature upon which to base a description of these two basic approaches present in the Western analytical community. In the United States, the terms parity and superiority run like a crimson thread through American strategic literature of the 1970s and 1980s and have left an indelible mark on Western discussion of Soviet power. The continuing Soviet growth of intercontinental and continental strategic potentials is interpreted as a Soviet attempt to undermine extended deterrence.
