ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses how the recommendations would serve North Atlantic Treaty Organization's (NATO) basic goals, and their implications for stability, reassurance and arms control. NATO’s inability to count on repelling such an attack with conventional forces results in its new reliance on the possible early use of nuclear weapons to respond to aggression. One principal measure of NATO’s effectiveness is its capacity to inhibit any Soviet impulse to resort to force in time of crisis. Such a Soviet reaction would be irrational in terms of their own interests in avoiding escalation. NATO has been engaged, unwillingly, in an arms competition with the Soviets/Warsaw Pact since the formation of the Alliance. The European Security Study proposals focus on exploiting advanced technologies for a more effective conventional defense. The question has been raised whether the proposed conventional missile for attacking Warsaw Pact airfields would complicate nuclear arms reduction talks.
