ABSTRACT
It has been argued that American foreign policy has been torn between universalist policies with reliance on narrow security interests served by military power and “abstention, value judgments and world order”. The countervailing superpower to the Soviet Union, the United States projects its nuclear deterrent onto the region, linking the nuclear and conventional defence of the southern flank of NATO. There are several levels of interconnections between the defence of the Gulf and security in the Mediterranean region. Regional conflicts have all along threatened the stability of East-West security in the Mediterranean. The nexus between economic interdependence and security may indeed be tested for Europe and the United States in the Mediterranean. More crucial are the links with Mediterranean security that flow from unavoidable requirements connected with the deployment of the RDF to the Gulf. Quite apart from the impact of changes in the East-West strategic balance, developments in military technology have been reshaping the geopolitical situation of the region.
