ABSTRACT
The consequences of a Central European tank-free zone will be heightened stability and security in Europe. Since the 1960s, NATO has sought to deter a Soviet attack on Western Europe through the doctrine of flexible response. It has often been said that the postwar division of Europe is unnatural. The top Soviet leaders in Moscow and their counterparts in Eastern Europe assert that what transpired in the wartime meetings at Tehran, Yalta, and Potsdam is a permanent fact. The incremental and evolutionary process of historical change—both within Europe and within the two superpowers—has begun to alter the geopolitical landscape of both halves of Europe. Average per capita income of Eastern European countries is approximately half that of the major West European countries. But even that underestimates the impoverished state of Eastern bloc consumers since their currencies have little purchasing power in terms of real goods and services.
