ABSTRACT
As the role of nuclear weapons in Europe gradually diminishes, the importance of non-nuclear weaponry will increase, and thus the imbalance in conventional forces will have even greater significance in both military and political terms than in the past. With both mounting public pressure in Western Europe for progress in arms control and the small leeway for conventional force improvements in these countries, it is hardly surprising that political leaders in Western Europe have once again shown greater interest in conventional arms control. The official NATO approach to conventional arms control was first presented in the Brussels Declaration of December 1986, which suggested that East and West should work out a common mandate for future conventional arms control talks. In addition, both Poland and the German Democratic Republic (GDR), in close consultation with the Soviet Union, launched new conventional arms control initiatives.
