ABSTRACT
In general, the Soviet government seems to be deliberately eroding the practice and principle of Norwegian sovereignty over Svalbard. This is thus an area of potential danger to the East-West balance because of Norway’s strategic importance to North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, its physical weakness, its disputes with the Soviet Union over territory, boundaries and resources, the importance of the Barents-Greenland Seas to Soviet strategic and tactical defensive and offensive capacity, and the growing Soviet pressures for military superiority. The Soviet Union is the largest single producer of oil in the world today and a major producer of natural gas. Three countries separate the Soviet Union and Soviet-occupied Afghanistan from the Indian Ocean: India, Pakistan, and Iran. The invasion of Afghanistan is the latest move in the Soviet-American power game, and it sets both precedents and a more forward base for subsequent Soviet moves.
