ABSTRACT
The need of a democratic European government for a majority’s support in parliament makes parliamentary disapproval of the government’s foreign and defense policies a very unlikely event; it would amount, to a vote of no-confidence. Europeans have been accustomed to assuming that, with respect to foreign and arms control policies, the word of the American president is authoritative. The progress in bilateral arms control agreements between the Soviet Union and the United States has left the European allies in a quandary with respect to American arms control policy. The perceptions of the 1960s and early 1970s can to a large extent still be considered the basis from which more recent congressional initiatives in arms control policy are judged in Western Europe. The prospect of direct congressional participation in the making of foreign policy leaves many Europeans uneasy. The new congressional role requires the executive and legislative branches of the United States government to reduce adversary relations to a minimum.
