ABSTRACT
The present strategic balance - if “balance” is the right word -exists between two very different alliances, or alliance systems, both of which de facto have existed for more than thirty years, and both of which are likely to continue throughout the next decade. Alliances as such cannot usually be said to have a purpose: it is the states composing the alliance, or the governments of those states, that have a purpose in concluding the alliance, a purpose for the alliance. There is no space to consider all the alliance arrangements in existence, and it is proposed therefore to look at several based on the United States and two based on the Soviet Union. The 1970s saw considerable changes in the central power balance, changes which almost wholly favored the Soviet bloc: the steady increase in Soviet conventional and nuclear power so that it became preponderant in Europe, and eventually selectively superior in the strategic nuclear confrontation.
